CLAIRE BERLINSKI: The Real Trigger Behind The Protests In Turkey. “Briefly, it is this: A large segment of the population is infuriated by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s attitude. To wit: The people who didn’t vote for me don’t matter – screw them. This is not new; he has always been this way. But the constraints upon his authoritarian impulses – the army, the independent judiciary, the opposition press – have systematically been eroded over time, leading to ever more authoritarian policies.” Good thing nothing like that could happen here.