Erdogan deploys his followers - day 10

Erdogan warns govt's patience could ‘end’ as police teargas protesters in Ankara

RT,

9 June, 2013

Police again deployed tear gas and water cannons to quell more than thousands protesters that gathered in downtown Ankara. Just a few kilometers away, the Turkish PM was addressing his supporters after warning his patience with the demos "has a limit".

At least two people were injured in fresh clashes in downtown Kizilay square in the Turkish capital, AFP reported. 

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, was meanwhile addressing supporters elsewhere in the city, calling on them to prepare for pro-government rallies next weekend in Istanbul and Ankara. 

"On Saturday, are you ready for a big Ankara meeting? ... The next day we will have the Istanbul meeting," Erdogan said to cheering crowds in Ankara, as riot police moved in against protesters.

On Sunday, Erdogan held a string of pro-government rallies across the country.

Erdogan remained defiant over the ongoing protests, again calling the protesters “marauders” and urging the supporters of his Justice and Development Party (AKP) to “teach them a lesson” at the next local polls as he spoke in the southern Turkish city of Adana.

“Those now at Taksim, those who burn and destroy, those at various places across the country, I ask them, in the name of which freedom are you doing this?” Erdogan said in a speech at the Mediterranean Games in Mersin.

“There is an end to our patience,” Erdogan warned in Ankara airport, as the massive crowd of his supporters chanted slogans like “We are ready die for you, Tayyip!”

The Taksim protesters do not represent all the people of Turkey, the prime minister argued.

“Are the people only those at Gezi Park? Aren’t those who came to meet us at Istanbul airport people too? Those who are gathered now in Ankara; aren’t they people, too?” he exclaimed.

On Saturday night, a rally in the Turkish capital which started peacefully was also dispersed with tear gas and water cannons. According to witness reports on Twitter police were targeting and detaining “random” youths in the crowd. At least three arrests were reportedly made.

Authorities deployed over 4,000 riot police to quell the unrest, witnesses claim.

In Istanbul, a massive crowd packed the whole of Taksim Square was joined by the fans from rival football teams Fenerbahce, Besiktas and Galatasaray, AFP reports. Police kept away from the scene. In the city's western Gazi neighborhood things did not go so peacefully as protesters hurled incendiary devices and taunted police, which resulted in fresh clashes. 

Earlier, parliamentary Speaker Cemil Cicek said the mass protests that have been gripping the country are now "under control" and the process “is becoming normalized and increasingly in line with common sense."

"We are ready to listen to all reasonable, legal and democratic demands," he added.

At the same time, Istanbul's mayor declared that Gezi Park would not be used as a venue to build a shopping mall, but the project to create a replica of Ottoman-era military barracks there would continue. 

"We are definitely not thinking of building a shopping mall there, no hotel or residence either. It can be... a city museum or an exhibition center," Istanbul mayor Kadir Topbas said as quoted by AFP. "The plan for the barracks was part of our election promises, the people gave us the authority to do it." 

The Turkish government dismissed press rumors of an early election on Saturday following the party meeting on the grounds it was unnecessary. Prime Minister Erdogan, who has been criticized by protesters for his overly authoritarian ruling style, returned to Turkey on Thursday night to a throng of supporters at Istanbul airport. A number of counter-demonstrations are said to be planned next week, as anti-government protests enter their 10th day. 

Social upheaval began in Turkey last week when a demonstration against the demolition of a central park in Istanbul was brutally dispersed by police. In response, protesters occupied Istanbul’s Taksim Square and clashed with police repeatedly during

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan dismisses Turkey protesters as vandals

Turkish prime minister challenges anti-government protesters to beat his party at the ballot box as demonstrations enter 10th day

the Guardian,

9 June, 2013

Images

Turkey's prime minister has climbed on top of a bus to give a fiery speech to thousands of his supporters, challenging increasingly angry anti-government protesters to beat his party at the ballot box after they flooded the streets for a 10th day of demonstrations.

On Sunday Recep Tayyip Erdoğan visited two cities where unrest has occurred and again condemned his detractors as a handful of looters and vandals.

In the southern city of Adana, where pro- and anti-government protesters clashed on Saturday night, Erdoğan greeted supporters before lashing out at his opponents in the polarised country.

"We won't do what a handful of looters have done. They burn and destroy …They destroy the shops of civilians. They destroy the cars of civilians," Erdoğan told supporters who had greeted him at the local airport. "They are low enough to insult the prime minister of this country."

He urged his supporters to avoid violence and predicted that his Islamic-rooted party would defeat his opponents during local elections in March. "I want you to give them the first lesson through democratic means in the ballot box," he said.

The nationwide anti-government protests were sparked by outrage over police use of force against an environmental protest in Istanbul on 31 May, and have grown into a display of discontent toward Erdoğan's government.

Many accuse the prime minister of becoming increasingly authoritarian after 10 years in power and of trying to impose his conservative, religious mores in the country, which is governed by secular laws. Erdoğan has rejected the accusations, insisting he respects all lifestyles and is the servant of his people.

He has repeatedly branded the protests as illegal efforts to discredit his government before local elections next year. He frequently refers to the 50% majority he received in the 2011 elections to dismiss the protest as attempts by a minority group to dominate a majority of his supporters.

"As long as you walk with us, the Justice and Development party administration will stand strong," Erdoğan said. "As long as there is life in my body, your prime minister and your party chairman, God willing, will not be deterred by anything."

He then travelled to the city of Mersin, where anti-protests have been held, to make a similar speech and to open new sports facilities, where he defended his government's democratic credentials, and criticised protesters for not taking to the streets to defend the rights of female students who were barred from studying at Turkish universities because of bans enforced by previous governments on Islamic-style headscarves. "What did you do for the freedom of those who couldn't go to universities?" he said.

Erdoğan was also scheduled to travel to the capital, where thousands of supporters were preparing to greet him in a show of force. The prime minister's refusal to moderate his tone caused dismay in Ankara, where thousands of protesters again gathered in a central square close to government offices, a day after police used tear gas and water cannons to oust them from the area.

"As the prime minister continues (with) his harsh style, the resistance also continues and is getting bigger," said Çağdaş Ersoy a 23-year-old student who joined the protests in Kizilay square. "He is making the resistance bigger without realizing it."

Riot police spray water on protesters in Kizilay square. Photograph: Zuma /Rex

Another protester, Cihan Akburun, said: "Erdoğan should not provoke the people. We invite everyone to common sense."

Tens of thousands of demonstrators gathered in Taksim Square, Istanbul, where a violent police crackdown on a sit-in to prevent the demolition of its Gezi park triggered the unrest. The government has vowed to proceed with plans to redevelop Taksim, replacing the park with a replica Ottoman barracks. It has since reconsidered plans to build a shopping mall.

In Adana on Saturday night, a pro-government group hurled stones at marching anti-government demonstrators, the state-run Anadolu agency said. Police evacuated women and children, but the protesters continued to clash with stones and batons.

It was the second time in the past 10 days of protests that pro- and anti-government protesters had fought with one another. On Thursday, party supporters attacked about 30 protesters in the city of Rize, on the Black Sea coast.

Three people have been killed in the protests, including a police officer in Adana who fell into an underpass that was under construction while chasing demonstrators. Thousands have been injured.

Erdoğan said the demonstrators had martyred the police officer, and defended the law-enforcement officers, dismissing calls by some protesters that officers engaged in abuse be sacked. "We won't sacrifice our police to their wishes," he said. "We cannot leave the streets for anarchists and terrorists to roam." The government had previously apologised for the excessive force used to roust the environmental protesters.

Erdoğan blamed the protests on forces that were trying to prevent Turkey's rise. "There are those who cannot stomach Turkey becoming greater and stronger," Erdoğan said. "They don't want any investments in Turkey."