Expert: Situation in Turkey reflects processes developing in Dar al-Islam

The situation in Turkey reflects processes developing in Dar al-Islam, director of the Armenian Centre for National and International Studies, Manvel Sargsyan, told ArmInfo correspondent when commenting on recent disorders in Turkey.

"These are rather serious and big processes. But it is not clear yet if they will gain the organized nature or not. The position of the state structures and army to the given processes is not clear either", - the expert said.

He also added that if the situation goes on developing, the army will play a crucial role. "If the army supports the ruling regime, the situation will be similar to that in Syria. But if the army supports the people, the process will develop the way it used to develop in Tunis", - he said.

On May 28 2013, a few hundred people gathered at Istanbul's Gezi Park. They were there to protest the demolition of Taksim's last remaining public park. The people gathered in the park were mostly environmental activists, leftists, and a few outspoken public figures; artists, musicians, actors-actresses. They had only one aim:
to protect the trees in the park from being cut down (or ‘transferred to a more suitable spot as claimed by the government representatives) and to protest the planned construction of a replica of 19th century Ottoman Barracks in its place, which was to serve as a luxury residence and Istanbul's 94th shopping mall. They could not have known that they were about to ignite the biggest civil protest movement Turkey has witnessed in the last three decades.