World View: Police Crackdown in Turkey Sparks Huge Anti-Government Rallies

This morning’s key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com

• Police crackdown in Turkey sparks huge anti-government rallies
• China blasts Philippines over stranded warship from 1999
• PLA: China faces increasing ‘strategic pressure’ in Asia

Police crackdown in Turkey sparks huge anti-government rallies

Thousands of protesters occupy park in Istanbul (Zaman)

A simple protest of plans to turn a small Istanbul, Turkey, park intoa shopping center began peacefully on Tuesday with 50 activistneighbors of the park. They set up “occupy” type tents to preventtrees from being removed. One politician even stood before anexcavation backhoe to block it, comparing himself to the man who stoodbefore the tanks in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, or Boris Yeltsinclimbing on a tank in Moscow’s Red Square. Things changed earlyFriday morning, when the police cracked down and attacked thedemonstrators with tear gas canisters and water cannon. By Saturday,the small protest had grown into an anti-government protest bythousands of demonstrators in Istanbul and with copycat protests incities across Turkey, demanding that Turkey’s prime minister RecepTayyip Erdogan step down. It’s expected that the protests will simmerdown at some point, but some people are comparing them to the initialprotests in 2010 that led the Arab Spring. Zaman (Turkey) and Hurriyet (Turkey)

China blasts Philippines over stranded warship from 1999

China, which is pursuing a policy of using its vast military power toconfiscate as much of other nations’ territory as it can, blasted thePhilippines on Thursday for delays in removing a warship that wasgrounded on the Ayungin Shoal / Renai Reef near the Spratly Islands in1999. China is calling the grounded ship a “serious encroachment ofterritorial sovereignty,” and warned the Philippines not to stir upany more trouble in the South China Sea. China is claimingmany regions that have historically belonged to other countries,including the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan. Allthese nations, except Brunei, have troops stationed on various islandsin the Spratlys to assert their respective claims. China is demandingthat each of these nations avoid trouble by simply giving up theirclaims, and turning the entire region over to Chinese sovereignty.China Daily and The Tribune (Philippines)

PLA: China faces increasing ‘strategic pressure’ in Asia

According to a new report by China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA),environment loom large.” Territorial disputes between China andJapan, and also between China and various countries bordering theSouth China Sea, are becoming fiercer, and has even provokedinterference by the United States. According to Yue Gang, a retiredPLA colonel, China has always faced these confrontations, especiallysince it has become the largest communist state:

“But that was a confrontation over ideology, whilethis time it is about territorial dispute. Any compromise inthese disputes will trigger a wave of nationalist movements in therelevant countries.”

South China Morning Post (Hong Kong)

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