The protests bring together people from very diverse horizons whose common point is their desire to reject global capitalism and to criticize the injustices and inequalities caused by it. These protests help the leaders of rich countries notice that there are many people in our world facing tremendous injustices. In other words, these riots help the entire world think about the flip side of the coin.However, in the Taksim protests, it was possible to discern a nationalistic tendency based on a brutal refusal of the “West,” as we may also observe in some other countries. There were people who wanted to use this opportunity to protest violently against the government and also people who have adopted a clear cut nationalistic refusal of the West under the guise of defending a leftist identity. In other words, it was difficult to measure how many of the protesters were really motivated by global social or economic issues. The protesters, who asked the IMF to get out, were in fact asking all Westerners to leave Turkey alone.
Nonetheless, there is a problem: Shattering the windows of shops, schools or attacking passers-by, notwithstanding the rhetoric of protecting the people, hurts these very people. That's why, even if the motivations of an anti-IMF reaction are understandable, the way of showing this reaction was very close to anarchy and terror. On the other hand, the excessive precautions taken by the Turkish police also contributed to the anarchic atmosphere we witnessed. The sky was filled with clouds of tear gas, and as a result, pedestrians who somehow managed to escape from the rioters' sticks and stones were caught by tear gas or pepper spray.
This paradoxical situation doesn't only appear in Turkey, and besides, the IMF and the World Bank should be concerned by these kinds of paradoxes. They should think more about the “street,” and when they do, they have to think not only about shopping mall owners, but also about the people who don't have the money to spend in these malls or the people who are against the very existence of these malls or passers-by who don't care about all these and whose only concern is to get to their schools or offices safe and sound. Those who rallied last week, and who claim to be anti or alter-globalists, were in fact more nationalist, autarkic or isolationist than alternative socialists. Even though both the protesters and the police who tried to disperse them claim they are “protecting the people,” because of their “protection” methods, the people faced very unpleasant situations.
The IMF and the World Bank absolutely don't want to see emerging economies become isolationist. However, emerging countries, if they want to pursue their emergence, have to deal with their social and political problems. That's exactly what Turkey has been trying to do for some time. However, some obstacles remain. In order to assure some kind of stability through economic, social or political measures, these have to be supported at the international level. This support may help Turkey avoid becoming a country that struggles desperately and single-handedly. This support may also allow a process of interactivity contributing to the relatively fast and painless resolution of complex problems. Is it necessary to say that for Turkey the most needed international support is the European Union's?
