On June 15, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan sent armored cars and riot police to clear Taksim Square. Gezi Park, the site of the original protests within the square, was closed to the public and put under police watch. For weeks after, the neighborhood felt quiet—"like playing house," Sibel, 23, who lives just down the road on Istiklal Avenue, said two weeks ago. (Like most protesters I spoke with, she asked that I not use her last name.) “A few days ago, we said, ‘Let’s do normal things.’”

The protesters, of course, found other means of resistance. Each night, they gathered by the hundreds in open neighborhood forums in cities around the country, and at exactly 9 p.m., supporters still clanged pots and pans and flickered their lights for 10-15 minutes while those on the streets below honked horns. But Gezi Park again became a site of conflict on Monday, when it was officially, and ceremoniously, reopened with newly planted grass and flowers. Only three hours later, police blocked its entrance and access to major surrounding streets, again employing tear gas and water cannons to repel protesters who planned to reconvene in the park later that evening. It was reopened for the second time on Tuesday, to groups that re-entered with banners and impromptu memorials; larger crowds joined later that night.

With the renewed focus on the park, one would be forgiven for assuming that the Turkey protests have much in common with the Occupy movement in the U.S., which began with the 2011 occupation of New York City’s Zuccotti Park. Indeed, Turkey’s protesters initially embraced the Occupy theme to popularize their message with a foreign audience. An “Occupy Turkey” Tumblr urged those following the events to use the hashtags #occupyturkey and #occupygezi, and actors within Turkey’s government drew comparisons, too: President Abdullah Gül insisted that the unrest in Turkey was “similar” to Occupy Wall Street and “completely different” from the Arab Spring revolts.

But don’t be misled. Turkey’s protests are much bigger than Occupy Wall Street ever was—and already have accomplished much more.

The most apparent sign of the protesters’ success came when, in mid-June, a Turkish court ruled against Erdoğan’s plan to build a replica of Ottoman-style military barracks in Taksim Square. Though the court’s decision was presumably independent, it’s worth noting that it was made at the peak of the unrest in early June (but only released last week). The ruling, though it can be appealed, is an early blow to the prime minister, who initially refused to negotiate with protesters, and to a government that on Wednesday passed legislation curbing the authority of the Turkish Chamber for Architects and Engineers, one of the original groups against Gezi Park's reconstruction.