Gezi anniversary reminder of Erdogan's nine lives

The one-year anniversary of the Gezi Park protests is another reminder of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's durability despite a series of crises.
A combination photo of a Turkish riot policeman using tear gas against a woman as people protest against the destruction of trees in a park brought about by a pedestrian project, in Taksim Square in central Istanbul May 28, 2013.In her red cotton summer dress, necklace and white bag slung over her shoulder she might have been floating across the lawn at a garden party; but before her crouches a masked policeman firing teargas spray that sends her long hair billowing upwards. Endlessly shared on social media
These images of a Turkish riot policeman using tear gas against a woman in Taksim Square, as people demonstrate against the destruction of trees in Gezi Park, became an iconic photograph for the protests in Istanbul, May 28, 2013. - REUTERS/Osman Orsal
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Semih Idiz
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Turkey is bracing for the first anniversary of the demonstrations that started as a simple protest to save trees in Gezi Park, near Istanbul’s Taksim Square, and ended up convulsing the country after the government’s heavy-handedness toward the protesters.

Many in and outside of Turkey saw the demonstrations as Turkey’s version of the Arab Spring, hoping it would bring down the country’s increasingly authoritarian and bellicose Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

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