Turkey riot police storm Istanbul’s Taksim Square
12 Jun 2013 12:35 AM GMT
Riot police stormed Istanbul’s protest square on Tuesday, firing tear gas and rubber bullets at firework-hurling demonstrators in a fresh escalation of unrest after Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he would meet with protest leaders.
Hundreds of police poured into Taksim Square, the epicentre of nearly two weeks of anti-government demos, warning demonstrators to stay away as bulldozers cleared the makeshift barriers erected by protesters after police pulled out of the area on 1 June.
The police’s early morning return to the square in armoured cars raised the stakes in the nationwide turmoil, the fiercest challenge yet to Erdogan and his Islamic-rooted government’s decade-long rule.
Smoke filled the area as police doused protesters with tear gas and urged them to return to the adjoining Gezi Park as some protesters, in helmets and gas masks, threw molotov cocktails, fireworks and stones in response.The police action came just hours after Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc said Erdogan would meet protest leaders on Wednesday, his first major concession since the trouble began 12 days ago.
‘Can you believe that? They attack Taksim, gas us in the morning just after proposing talks with us? What kind of leader is that?’ said Yulmiz, 23, after waking up to the clashes in his tent in Gezi Park.
‘We won’t abandon Gezi, they can send thousands of policemen, he vowed. ‘I am not afraid of their water cannon, it’ll be my first shower in three days.’ The nationwide unrest first erupted after police cracked down heavily on 31 May on a campaign to save Gezi Park from redevelopment.
The trouble spiralled into mass displays of anger against Erdogan and his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), seen as increasingly authoritarian, injuring nearly 5,000 people and tarnishing Turkey’s image as a model of Islamic democracy.
Erdogan said on Tuesday that four people, including a policeman, had died. The national doctors’ union confirmed the death toll had climbed from three to four after a protester succumbed to his injuries but gave no further details. In a speech to lawmakers broadcast live on television, Erdogan urged ‘sincere’ protesters in Gezi Park to pull back, warning that their environmental campaign was being hijacked by ‘an illegal uprising against the rule of democracy’.
In a symbolic gesture, police removed flags and anti-Erdogan banners from a nearby building and replaced them with a single Turkish flag and a large portrait of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the father of modern Turkey, whose image has also been adopted by the protesters.
Hundreds of police poured into Taksim Square, the epicentre of nearly two weeks of anti-government demos, warning demonstrators to stay away as bulldozers cleared the makeshift barriers erected by protesters after police pulled out of the area on 1 June.
The police’s early morning return to the square in armoured cars raised the stakes in the nationwide turmoil, the fiercest challenge yet to Erdogan and his Islamic-rooted government’s decade-long rule.
Smoke filled the area as police doused protesters with tear gas and urged them to return to the adjoining Gezi Park as some protesters, in helmets and gas masks, threw molotov cocktails, fireworks and stones in response.The police action came just hours after Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc said Erdogan would meet protest leaders on Wednesday, his first major concession since the trouble began 12 days ago.
‘Can you believe that? They attack Taksim, gas us in the morning just after proposing talks with us? What kind of leader is that?’ said Yulmiz, 23, after waking up to the clashes in his tent in Gezi Park.
‘We won’t abandon Gezi, they can send thousands of policemen, he vowed. ‘I am not afraid of their water cannon, it’ll be my first shower in three days.’ The nationwide unrest first erupted after police cracked down heavily on 31 May on a campaign to save Gezi Park from redevelopment.
The trouble spiralled into mass displays of anger against Erdogan and his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), seen as increasingly authoritarian, injuring nearly 5,000 people and tarnishing Turkey’s image as a model of Islamic democracy.
Erdogan said on Tuesday that four people, including a policeman, had died. The national doctors’ union confirmed the death toll had climbed from three to four after a protester succumbed to his injuries but gave no further details. In a speech to lawmakers broadcast live on television, Erdogan urged ‘sincere’ protesters in Gezi Park to pull back, warning that their environmental campaign was being hijacked by ‘an illegal uprising against the rule of democracy’.
In a symbolic gesture, police removed flags and anti-Erdogan banners from a nearby building and replaced them with a single Turkish flag and a large portrait of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the father of modern Turkey, whose image has also been adopted by the protesters.
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