Word: bangkok
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Dates: during 2010-2019
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After two days of being pushed around and humiliated by anti-government protesters, Thailand's security forces began pushing back on Saturday. It was a day that saw the first bloodshed since the protests began in Bangkok on March 12. But by mid-evening both sides had called on their forces to retreat. It was unclear who held the upper hand in what is becoming a battle for survival by the current Thai government...
...military ousters have been commonplace throughout modern Thai history. The military has staged 18 successful coups since 1932, when a group of army officers and intellectuals overthrew the last absolute monarch. Since then, the military has ruled overtly or has influenced politics from behind the scenes. In May 1992, Bangkok's middle class rose up against a general who usurped power following an election in which he was not a candidate. Soldiers responded with deadly force. King Bhumibol intervened to end the bloodshed and restore democracy, and many believed the days of coups in Thailand had passed, as the army...
...promoted modern democracy and most Thai citizens have come to expect it, attempts to radically upset this balance - as Thaksin did by appointing his loyalists to key commands - risk sparking the kind of reaction that resulted in the 2006 coup against him. (See pictures of the 2008 protests in Bangkok...
...army has rejected orders from four different Prime Ministers to quash demonstrations against their rule - at the start of the Asian economic crisis in 1997, during street protests against Thaksin in 2006, in 2008 when protesters occupied the Prime Minister's office and, most notoriously, that same year when Bangkok's international airports were shut down by demonstrators in order to force Thaksin-allied Prime Ministers from office. Some believe the army refused to act because it did not want blood on its hands from saving politicians, which would revive the black stain on its reputation from May 1992, when...
...year. It played a key role in Abhisit's rise to the premiership, helping to broker deals among politicians who had been loyal to Thaksin so they would join Abhisit's coalition. The generals also used their troops to break up Red Shirt riots in April 2009 in Bangkok aimed at ousting Abhisit. Among the military's rewards have been large increases in budget allocations under Abhisit's administration and few questions about purchasing irregularities...