Friday, June 7, 2:30 a.m., Istanbul. Thousands of Justice and Development Party (AKP) supporters gathered as a showdown outside the Ataturk International Airport in Istanbul to welcome Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan upon his return from a four-day tour to North Africa, while a massive crowd in Taksim — just 20 minutes by car in normal traffic — continued their protest that started May 27 to counter Erdogan’s proposed plan to build a replica of the Ottoman Artillery Barracks, which were demolished in 1940, there.
The crowd chanted, “Ya Allah, Bismillah, Allahu Akbar,” as Erdogan climbed onto a bus at that early hour. “Let us go, we will crush Taksim.”
