By two local believers. June 4^th, 2013

Today is the fifth day of protests in dozens of cities throughout Turkey. The demonstrations began at Gezi Park in Istanbul where dozens of people had been protesting government plans to remove the park to make way for a possible shopping mall. The park is a well-loved green space with some trees that were apparently planted during the era of Ataturk in the early 20th century. The original protests were generally peaceful and environmentalist in nature, but there was already a political element given the park's renown and the current government's "moderate Islamist" stance. Secularists in Turkey are normally supporters of Ataturk and his reforms and they are often at odds with the Islamists.

The police responded to the demonstration with a show of force, moving people out of the park and using tear gas and pepper spray. Word of the excessive force used by police spread quickly and images of clashes between protestors and police flooded Twitter and Facebook. Thousands of people in Istanbul were moved to action to express solidarity with the protestors at Gezi Park, and the police escalated the situation with increasing violence, including street tanks, water cannons, and more gas cannisters.

People in other cities, also outraged at the police response to the demonstrations, began to take to the streets. The protests were quickly broadened to include expressions of discontent with Turkey's current government, particularly the perceived strong-handed control being wielded by prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the Turkish police forces. Crowds in more than 20 of Turkey's 81 provinces participated in the protests. People began calling for the prime minister to resign, and graffiti related to Erdogan and the police began to appear throughout the country.

The protests have grown in intensity and clashes with police have become increasingly violent. Several political parties and causes are riding the wave of public discontent and attempting to coopt the demonstrations. And as the crowds are increasingly emboldened the destruction that they are causing also increases. It seems that the protests are losing some of the public support because of the lack of a clear message and the damage that people are seeing on the street.

These events have been a wake-up call to the ruling party and there will have to be an ongoing effort to win back the confidence of the people. Erdogan's initial statements were dismissive of the protests as he defended the actions of his government and the police. And now he is out of the country on a scheduled diplomatic trip to North Africa. The deputy prime minister made a statement, today, however, apologizing for the excessive force used to quash the initial protest at Gezi Park. This is an obvious sign that the government is now being forced to reconsider Erdogan's dismissive approach…

June 5, 2013

We wanted to let you know about the recent events in Turkey and ask you to join us in prayer. The protests are still going on 78 cities with different intensity. The hardest ones are in Istanbul, Izmir, and Ankara. The protest is against the intolerance and dictatorship of the government. The people who are protesting want the government to respect their rights, instead of keeping to change the laws to control their lives. There has never been such a protest before in Turkey. The protesters are mainly college students and elderly people. They just sit, walk, sing, and talk. There is no violence or resistance on their side when the police beat them up to arrest them. They even clean the mess and bad graffiti about the prime minister every morning until 4:00PM! It’s amazing! People just want to be free from the dictatorship of the government and live in real democracy, not on paper, and they do it with a very civilized and loving attitude. They even serve food and drink to the police who are attacking them with gas bombs, water tanks, etc.

We were hoping that people would not die, but one person was killed by the police in Ankara and another in Antakya during protests. The prime minister started to threaten indirectly by saying that he has been holding 50% of his people not to get involved and do something against the protesters. He’ll probably announce what he will do on Saturday and if he releases that 50% on the protesters, a civil war will start and many people will die. Please, pray with us (and even fast if you can) that God will resolve it before many people die. May His will be done and may we believers be ready to be used by Him as He works in His sovereign ways.

Let’s join our brothers and sisters in Turkey in praying for their nation at this crucial time in its history.