17 years ago today, “republic rallies” began in Turkey, attended by 2 million people and aiming to defend “laicite”, the strict form of secularism, against the government, and were the country’s largest protests to date (this record was surpassed by the Gezi protests in 2013).

8 comments

1. I totally skipped the “17 years ago” part and was surprised. Turkey could really use some rallies today.

2. This was mostly pro-establishment protests as AKP/Erdogan was dismantling the republican establishment and checks&balances as EU was applauding him as a “liberal islamist” as analogous to christian democrats in Europe.

3. ataturk is turning in his grave so much its a peripetum mobile at this point

4. How that worked out? /s

5. Not “17 years ago today”. These meetings took place from April to May.

   https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_Protests

6. Not to mention EU was supporting Erdoğan during these times. Secularist and Kemalist protestors were accused with fascism and islamophobia by western media.

7. Why is this crap on r/europe?

8. Then people who’ve never lived in Turkey their whole lives but had Turkish passports started being allowed to vote