It took little more than two weeks, a dozen bulldozers and 130,000 tear gas canisters to smash Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's hard-earned international reputation. The Gezi Park demonstrations, which mushroomed into nationwide protests against Erdogan's authoritarian style, have also cast a long shadow over the relationship between Turkey and the EU, with membership talks postponed until October this year.
However, the Turkish-Kurdish peace process seems to has survived intact despite the demonstrations - and the Turkish police's harsh reaction to them. "Despite the obstacles I am determined to advance this process and I believe that we will be successful," said jailed Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan.
Turkey's battle with the Internet took a new twist on Wednesday. A Turkish government minister said Twitter has refused to cooperate with the government, but that Facebook had responded "positively" and was "in cooperation with the state."
Turkish Transport, Maritime Affairs and Communications Minister Binali Yilderim, quoted in Turkish media, did not elaborate on what this cooperation entails. But Turkish officials have complained that social media outlets aren't sharing user access information with prosecutors and law enforcement agencies. The story took an additional turn later in the day, when Facebook issued a statement denying that it was cooperating with the government.
Turkish government networks were hacked on Wednesday, compromising the private information of staffers in PM Tayyip Erdogan's office, a source in PM's office confirmed to Reuters. The attack was in support of the ongoing anti-government protests.
Staff email accounts were reportedly accessed after a phishing attack, and those affected were cut off from the network, a source said. Anonymous hacked the Prime Minister’s official website (basbakanlik.gov.tr) and gained access to staff email addresses, passwords and phone numbers, the group said in a press release.
Protests continue to swell across Turkey as tens of thousands of people joined the fourth consecutive day of anti-government actions in which "the demands of the protesters have broadened with their numbers."
"We have had enough of the way [Prime Minister Recep Tayyip] Erdogan understands democracy and the way he wants to dictate his rules," Ozgur Aksoy, an engineer demonstrating in Gezi Park on Monday, told Agence France-Presse. "It's not only about the park here, it is about everything else in the last 10 years. People are angry, very angry." Justin Wedes, one of the original organizers of Occupy Wall Street and who is in Turkey now, describes how the protest that started out to save a public park quickly morphed into something much bigger.
For over two decades Turkey's been seeking EU membership, a goal that has recently lost much of its appeal thanks to the ongoing Euro crisis. Financial gloom has caused some Turks - long term EU residents - to head home in search of better jobs and opportunities.