What's Really Fueling The Turkish Protests?
In a photo adopted by protesters as a symbol of their struggle, a Turkish policeman uses tear gas against a woman during a rally in Taksim Square in central Istanbul on May 28. O stensibly, the protests rocking Istanbul now are over the government's plans to raze one of the city's remaining parks to build new commercial properties. But beneath that issue lie much deeper tensions that account for the rapidly escalating violence. Many analysts see the clashes -- the most violent since Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan took office in 2002 -- as an explosion of frustration among Turkish secularists against his leadership style. At issue is his perceived authoritarianism in pushing his own view of Turkey as a modern but conservative Muslim country with little regard for the views of his more liberal, but divided, opposition. Barcin Yinanc, the opinion page editor of the English-language "Hurriyet Daily News" in Istanbul, puts the views of the protesters' message