I do not think anyone in the ummah would want to share the same feelings with the U.S. and Israel these days. Of course, such expectations and emotional approaches make it difficult to understand what has been happening in Iran. They turn speculation into an expression of wishes, and all speculation and analyses go on record as data to understanding the desires regarding Iran.
Of course, those who wish may want Iran to learn some lessons from this situation, but it is neither the time nor place for this. Similar to other places, Iran has a dynamic sociology, and of course the missions Iran has undertaken in the international plan is going to have reflections on that sociology. We know that the Iranian public is not on the same emotional and wavelength with the Iranian regime. As a matter of fact, the 40-year practice of the revolution is increasingly distancing its own people and making them hate it.
In addition to this, there is another community that will stand against these protests and protect its state and its stability. In other words, Iran does not consist solely of the protesters we have recently been seeing in squares. There is another mass that is against that protesting, opposition public that is just as organized and has complete faith in the revolution’s beliefs and goals. Hence, it needs to be perceived that those who want to achieve results with such mass demonstrations do not take this dynamic in Iran into much consideration.
Essentially, the meaning attributed to the demonstrators in the Gezi Park incidents through the media was that they represented the whole of of Turkey. While President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said, “We are hardly keeping 50 percent in their homes,” he was challenging nothing other than this all-inclusive “Turkish public” perception and instrumentalization.
With the massive rallies he held with crowds he shortly gathered, not against the protesters but at different squares, he displayed that he was not bluffing, hence the enthusiasm of those who wanted to topple him through public protests was short lived.
Let us accept that public demonstrations are basically one of democracy’s sacred values.