In 2013, many Turkish liberals and secularists took to the streets in the Gezi Park protests – prompted initially by news that the Turkish leader intended to build over one of the few parks in central Istanbul to re-create an old Ottoman-era barracks that had once been the base for a rising by Islamist officers. Erdogan also planned to build a mosque in Taksim Square, the symbolic heart of Istanbul, right next to Gezi Park.
