As reported in last night’s news feed, protests that began in Istanbul several days ago have now spread to Ankara and other Turkish cities. The unrest, which began over the planned construction of a shopping mall in a city park, has grown into a generalized outcry against what some people see as Prime Minister Erdogan’s attempt to recreate the Ottoman Empire, with himself as Sultan — and Caliph.

Do these latest events in Istanbul and Ankara portend a “Turkish Spring”? Not according to a June 1 post at Emran Feroz’s Blog, which has been kindly translated from the German by JLH:

Erdogan Sticks Out His Tongue

When the so-called Arab Spring broke out, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan professed to be for the demonstrators. He said several times that Turkey strictly abjures the use of violence against peaceful protests. Especially in the case of Syria, Erdogan made clever use of this rhetoric to advance his own interests. Now his own police are moving violently against unarmed people in Istanbul.

There were protests on Friday in Istanbul’s centrally located Taksim Square. The reason: One of the last bits of greenery in the city — Gezi Park — is slated to be transformed. The plan is to rebuild an 18th century barracks to contain a shopping mall, among other things. Environmental activists were not impressed. More than 5,000 demonstrators gathered to interfere with the work of the bulldozers that were uprooting trees.

The Turkish government has been obstinate from the beginning and unwilling to change anything in the construction plan. It preferred to send in police units to disperse the demonstrators. The situation escalated because the police were not loath to use force. According to the Turkish newspaper, Today’s Zaman, as many as one hundred demonstrators were injured — at least twelve seriously. There were numerous arrests.

According to eyewitness reports, the police in some cases acted with clearly excessive force. The unarmed demonstrators were kicked and hit with batons or attacked with pepper spray. Pictures of the police violence in Istanbul have long since circled the globe. It is necessary to be cautious here, for several photo montages are in circulation. In the last 24 hours, people especially in the social networks have expressed their solidarity with the Turkish demonstrators.

It is also worth noting how quickly this protest, originally directed only against the construction of a shopping mall, became a not-to-be-underestimated action against the Turkish regime. Chiefly to blame for this is Erdogan’s regime. According to several human rights organizations, the police interventions resembled those of a typical police state. Memories of the beginnings of the Arab Spring surfaced quickly. Several media outlets associated the events in Istanbul with those in Tahrir Square in Cairo.

Prime Minister Erdogan, who had frequently shown himself in solidarity with the demonstrators in Arab states, did not want to hear about a solution. “Do what you want; we have decided!” was his word on the protests and the construction plans in Gezi Park. Erdogan considers the actions of the police to have been correct. He had nothing to say about excessive force. Instead he warned against extremists.

Erdogan’s attitude once again reveals his double standard, which had been clarified not only in the present Syrian war, but also in his verbal attacks on Israel. More than anything else, the prime minister is interested in advancing his own image. From the beginning, he has joined the struggle against the Syrian strongman al-Assad, whom he criticized especially for his treatment of peaceful demonstrators. He has long been in agreement with his colleague, Obama, that Assad must go.

He also supported the arming and training of rebels, who had suddenly made the pilgrimage to Turkey from all over the world to prepare themselves for “holy war.” These groups are not only responsible for numerous human rights abuses in Syria, but quite probably also for the two attacks on Turkish soil which have been pinned on the Assad regime.

And Erdogan has done so much more than that in ten years. Not only has the economy been brought to the fore, but freedom of expression and the press have been trampled and minorities are stilled denied any rights. To top it all off, Erdogan has continually increased the power of his office and has cast an covetous eye on the presidential system in the USA.

Erdogan’s lust for power is disquieting for many. His adherents, among whom are many conservatives, even sometimes celebrate him as “caliph.” Even Bashar al-Assad said in an interview that Erdogan fancies himself “caliph.” Maybe that means being a kind of “Neo-Ottoman sultan.” He already has this reputation in far-flung parts of the Islamic world. It is not a good reputation, because the “caliph” has always been the one to do the dirty work of the West, while presenting himself as the “defender of the Muslims.”

The present protests in Turkey are certainly not comparable to those in Egypt or Tunisia. Only romantics see a parallel here. Erdogan is not a dictator like Mubarak or Ben-Ali, although to be sure, many Turks are unhappy with the course he has taken. Although the situation has become a debacle for the chief of state, there is no revolution happening in Istanbul.