Over the past two weeks, a period of relative calm in Thai politics has been shattered.
Tens of thousands of demonstrators have taken to the streets of Bangkok in a striking echo of previous protest movements that, over the last decade, have led to a military coup, the occupation of the main international airport, the court-ordered resignation of two prime ministers and a military operation in 2010 that cost more than 90 lives.
Those years of turmoil surrounding the figure of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra left Thailand shocked and exhausted in 2010.