Some 100 people rallied outside the Turkish Embassy in Tel Aviv over the weekend in solidarity with the tens of thousands of Turkish citizens marching in cities across Turkey. The protesters, many of them Turkish-Israelis, chanted pro-democracy, anti-violence, and anti-Erdogan slogans:

“Enough with the violence by the state and the police,” they said. ”Democracy or rebellion,” said others.

Asaf Nisan Guler, a young Turkish-Israeli citizen, gave his opinion:
“I’m speaking to my friends in Turkey who are out protesting; they are not afraid, their hearts are transformed. They are against oppression in their country. The way the government handled the protests was wrong, violent, fascist, illegitimate … all those things.

“I don’t think this is a Turkish Spring, not quite yet. Not like the Arab Spring, which was some sectors of society against others. The Turkish protesters are peaceful; they don’t do provocations … they just want the oppression to stop. I don’t see it turning into something like the Arab Spring. Turkey is, after all, an established democracy.”

Across Turkey, hundreds of protesters have been injured in a heavy-handed police response that has included water cannon and tear gas. The protests – which began in response to government plans to raze a popular park for development – have spread to include rallies in 67 cities against the government.

The EU has called the response “disproportionate,” while Washington urged “calm.”

Erdogan’s Islamist government has imprisoned more journalists than any other country, outpacing even serial human-rights abusers, Iran and China. The protests have highlighted those abuses, with top U.S. foreign policy analysts now calling for a reevaluation in the degree to which Washington’s foreign policy machines treat Turkey as a genuine democracy.

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