First, some questions to answer: What would have happened if the prime minister of the Turkish Republic, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, had not ordered the police under his authority to attack on May 31 a couple hundred activists protesting the cutting down of trees in Taksim Gezi Park to replace them with a building that would resemble an Ottoman military barracks?

If that attack had not taken place, could the international interest-rate lobby, American neo-cons, Israel, leftists, terrorists, main opposition CHP and the rest of the entire gamut of anti-Erdogan provocateurs, whom he and his supporters have been accusing, go out and mobilize hundreds of thousands of people in Istanbul and all over the country, make them take to the streets and clash with the police? Is there anyone with a sane mind who could answer these questions affirmatively?

Let’s go back to the beginning of the question, think again and ask the right questions. Prime Minister Erdogan had made a habit of suppressing street demonstrations that he sees as a problem — but which actually are a constitutional right — with the police force he commands. That is precisely what he did May 1, when he closed Taksim Square to labor unions.

Things went well until May 30. Erdogan could have mistakenly believed that having his police disperse protesting crowds with gas and night sticks was doing a good job. In fact, they were not solving the problems accumulating around them.