"With the Turkish lira and stock market under pressure, Mr Erdogan’s government may have had no choice but to acclaim a tactical withdrawal as a victory on the field.
In another sign of caution on Mr Erdogan’s part, police, without using tear gas or water cannon, allowed thousands of protesters on Tuesday to fill up Istanbul’s central Taksim square. With Turkey’s international image badly tarnished, the authorities decided against a further show of overwhelming force against demonstrators who were careful not even to block the traffic.
In fact, Mr Erdogan’s power is more heavily constrained than his muscular, defiant response to the protests would suggest. His ambition of creating an executive-style presidency in time for the first direct elections to the post next year was checked well before the protests erupted by a lack of parliamentary support for the required changes to the constitution."
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