Hurriyet Daily News
June 5, 2013
A majority of the Taksim Gezi Park protesters do not feel close to any
political party and have said the prime minister’s authoritarian
attitude caused the ongoing protests across the country, according to a
recent online survey conducted among the protesters.
Seventy
percent of the protesters said they did not feel close to any political
party, while only 15.3 percent said they felt close to a political
party, according to a recent online survey conducted by Esra Ercan
Bilgiç and Zehra Kafkaslı, two academics from Istanbul Bilgi University
between June 3 and 4.
Only 7 percent of the respondents said the
political party they were a member of influenced them in joining the
protests. However, the prime minister’s authoritarian attitude was
influential for 92.4 percent of respondents attending the protests,
while 91.3 of respondents said the police’s disproportionate use of
force was influential. A large majority of respondents, 91.1 percent,
said the violation of democratic rights influenced them to attend the
protests. The silence of media on the demonstration influenced 84.2
percent of the respondents to attend the protests. More than half of the
respondents, 56.2 percent, said the cutting of trees in Taksim Gezi
Park was influential in their participation in the demonstrations.
What do Turkish protesters want?
A
majority of the protesters demanded respect of liberties and an end to
police violence while rejecting a military coup against the government.
The
rate of those who demanded “an end to police violence” was 96.7
percent, while 96.1 percent demanded “respect of liberties from now on.”
Only 37 percent demanded a new political party be established. A total
of 79.5 percent of respondents said they did not want a military coup to
intervene in Parliament, while 6.6 percent of respondents demanded a
military coup.
Who are Taksim Gezi protesters?
A
majority of the protesters defined themselves as libertarian and did not
vote for the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), according to
the survey. A majority of the protesters who completed the survey, 81.2
percent, defined themselves as “libertarian.” A total of 64.5 percent of
the respondents defined themselves as “secular.” Those who did not
define themselves as “conservative” totaled 75 percent, while those who
did not “vote for the AKP” made 92.1 percent. More than half of the
respondents denied being apolitical. Out of 3,000 respondents, 75.8
percent said they had joined the recent protests in Turkey by going out
to the streets.
Many people made noise from their balconies by
hitting pots or turning off and on their lights in the evenings to
support the protests across the country, which started in Istanbul’s
iconic Taksim Square to stop a shopping mall project that was to replace
Gezi Park there.
Among the respondents, 63.6 percent were between the ages of 19 and 30.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
had previously said the Gezi Park project triggered the protests but
later the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) and some
extremists intervened on the ground to motivate the demonstrations.
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/protesters-are-young-libertarian-and-furious-at-turkish-pm-says-survey.aspx?pageID=238&nID=48248&NewsCatID=341
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