Seemorerocks: Turkey - Violent clashes as Erdogan holds a rally

Turkey unrest: violent clashes in Istanbul as Erdoğan holds rally

Police use teargas against protesters trying to enter Taksim Square as prime minister talks of foreign conspiracy

Protesters help a woman suffering from the effects of teargas during clashes with Turkish riot police in Istanbul Photograph: Filip Singer/EPA

the Guardian,

16 June, 2013

Istanbul came to a standstill on Sunday as an army of riot police and gendarmerie cordoned off streets and use teargas on protesters in the centre of the city while the prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, staged a rally before hundreds of thousands of supporters at the waterfront.

Some 24 hours after using brute force to clear the focal point of the demonstrations against the government and bulldozing Gezi Park in Taksim Square, where a varied crew of protest groups had been camped out since the beginning of the month, Erdogan ditched all efforts at conciliation at a rally of his Justice and Development party (AKP).

"Taksim is not Turkey," Erdogan declared, in a reference to the city centre square ringed off by riot police on Sunday evening as thousands of demonstrators sought to converge there.

Protest organisers had called for a million-strong demonstration at Taksim Square, but the entire area was cordoned off, making access impossible. Stretches of the motorways encircling Istanbul were also closed by police to try to prevent protesters getting to the city centre.

The opposite conditions applied to government supporters making their way en masse to hear the prime minister. The Istanbul municipality and the AKP laid on buses and other transport to help boost the numbers attending.

Erdogan inveighed against the international media, blaming the BBC and CNN for distorting the drama of the past three weeks in what he repeatedly alleged was an international plot to divide and diminish Turkey.

"You will make your voice heard so anyone conspiring against Turkey will shiver," he told the crowd. "Turkey is not a country that international media can play games on."

He added that the Turkish nation "is not the one banging pots at nights", in reference to what has become a soundtrack to the protests: middle-aged people coming on to their apartment balconies nightly to hammer on kitchen utensils.

The same din was heard across several central Istanbul neighbourhoods on Sunday evening.

While Erdogan addressed the massive crowds in bright sunshine, much of the city was sullen and tense. In several districts middle-aged women kept up a steady racket by beating pots and pans from their balconies as riot police lounged around, sitting on pavement verges.

The police raids, which started on Saturday afternoon and quickly cleared and occupied Gezi Park, included acts of startling brutality that outraged normally apolitical Istanbul citizens, as well as human rights monitors.

Teargas was fired into impromptu medical clinics housed in tents. A luxury hotel on Taksim Square being used as an emergency refuge for victims and for the wounded was repeatedly invaded by the police and teargas fired into the enclosed spaces.

"It was horrible in there," said Mehmet Polat, 32. "They shot teargas inside the hotel several times, the gas rose up to the sixth floor of the hotel, everything was filled with white smoke."

Another young man next to him nodded. "People were shoving each other, panicking, but the police kept attacking us." Both were not giving up. "Our demands are very clear," Polat said. "And until they are met, we are not going anywhere."

But on Sunday Turkey's minister for European affairs, Egemen Bagis, said any civilians entering Taksim Square would be viewed as terrorists.

Gezi Park was completely cleared of the gaudy paraphernalia of pluralist protest that had been its hallmark.

Stands, tents and banners were all gone. The central park fountain, decorated with flags of a wide array of political factions on Saturday morning, was adorned with one single Turkish flag the following morning.

Istanbul's governor, Huseyin Avni Mutlu, said no one would be allowed to return to the park to protest.

Erdogan's confrontational style, his divisive rhetoric and the extreme force used by the police on victims including young children, with one pregnant woman losing her baby on Saturday evening, have tarnished his credentials internationally as a reformist Muslim leader.

But the strong-arm tactics do not appear to have closed down the protests and have sown dismay among many non-political Turks.

One policeman guarding the entrance to Gezi Park said he was not happy with the way things were going: "The government is working against the people, and they are using the police to do it. They are handling it very badly. I hate doing this."

At a mobile clinic on the square, one medic said: "They promised us that they would not attack our field hospital, but they did anyway, firing six rounds of teargas directly into our tent.

"This is against all human rights agreements. A serious crime. Not even in war should medical facilities be attacked. But we will remain here and continue our work."

The Turkish health ministry has been issuing threats in recent days, warning that all health professionals treating protesters during the Gezi Park protests would be prosecuted.

Amnesty International said about 100 people had been detained and were being held incommunicado.

"The authorities are denying due process to those they have detained. The police must release them immediately or disclose their location and allow access to family members and lawyers," said Andrew Gardner, Turkey researcher at Amnesty International.

Turkey unrest: Mass rally for Erdogan amid new clashes

Turkey's prime minister has rallied tens of thousands of supporters in Istanbul, telling them it was his duty to clear a city square that has been the focus of anti-government unrest.

The BBC's Chris Morris says Turkish police have cordoned off the area around Taksim Square and neighbouring Gezi Park

BBC,

16 June, 2013

Recep Tayyip Erdogan denied he was a dictator, criticised foreign media and vowed to "identify one by one those who have terrorised the streets".

Unrest has continued in Ankara and Istanbul, with police firing tear gas.

Two trade union groups have called a one-day nationwide strike for Monday.

Baki Cinar, a spokesman for one of the groups, Kesk, told AFP news agency: "Our demand is for police violence to end immediately."

The protests in Turkey began on 28 May against a plan to redevelop Istanbul's Gezi Park, but snowballed into nationwide anti-government protests after the perceived high-handed response of the authorities under their three-term prime minister.

Istanbul looks like a divided city more than ever. In Kazlicesme, PM Erdogan addressed tens of thousands of AKP supporters under the banner "Let's ruin this big plot"; while on the roads leading to Taksim Square, thousands are marching, protesting or clashing with the police.

Taksim and Gezi Park are completely cordoned off by the police. Only journalists are allowed in. On a road just off the square, police warned protesters carrying a banner saying: "Happy Father's Day Tayyip" to disperse and soon intervened with tear gas. Reports of clashes, sirens of ambulances from time-to-time - it's been the same cat-and-mouse game for days. Protesters gather, police intervene, protesters disperse, police withdraw, protesters gather again in bigger numbers.

Mr Erdogan has been criticised for not being able to handle this crisis, that his defiant speeches and heavy-handed approach have increased the tension. As the PM addressed tens of thousands and activists called for a million to gather in Taksim, it looks like Istanbul is awaiting another rough night.

Medical officials estimate that 5,000 people have been injured and at least four killed since the protests began.

'Unbearable'

The rally in support of Mr Erdogan and his Islamist-rooted ruling party, the Justice and Development Party (AKP), was held in the Kazlicesme district, about 10km (6 miles) from central Istanbul.

The BBC's Chris Morris in Istanbul says this was the perfect day, setting and weather for Mr Erdogan to set out his message of "I am the man in charge".

Mr Erdogan defended Saturday's police action to clear Istanbul's Taksim Square and nearby Gezi Park, saying: "I said we were at an end. That it was unbearable. Yesterday the operation was carried out and it was cleaned up. It was my duty as prime minister."

He criticised the international press and social media for the coverage of the unrest, urging them to be ethical and honest.

"If the international media want a picture of Turkey, the picture is here," he said.

Mr Erdogan denied being an authoritarian leader and said the protests had been manipulated by "terrorists".

He said: "They say 'you are too tough', they say 'dictator'. What kind of a dictator is this who met the Gezi Park occupiers and honest environmentalists. Is there such dictator?

Protest timeline

28 May: Protests begin in Gezi Park over plans to redevelop one of Istanbul's few green spaces

30-31 May: Police raids on protest camp culminate in mass unrest

3 June: Protesters establish camps with makeshift facilities from libraries to food centres

4-10 June: Protests widen into show of anti-government dissent in towns and cities across Turkey; clashes between police and demonstrators

11/12 June: Night of clashes see riot police disperse anti-government demonstrators in Taksim Square, which adjoins Gezi Park; camps in the park remain

13 June: Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan issues a "final warning" to protesters to leave Gezi Park

14 June: Government agrees to suspend Gezi Park redevelopment plans until a court rules on the issue, PM holds talks with members of a key protest group

15 June: Police move in, clearing protesters from Gezi Park

Q&A: Protests in Turkey

Why is Gezi Park so important?

Profile: Recep Tayyip Erdogan

In pictures: Fresh protests

"The attitude across Turkey with the pretext of Taksim's Gezi Park is not sincere. It is nothing more than the minority's attempt to dominate the majority... We could not have allowed this and we will not allow it," he said.

Activists have called on protesters to return to Taksim Square but it is now cordoned off by police.

There have been sporadic clashes in surrounding areas, with police firing tear gas and water cannon.

Istanbul's governor, Huseyin Avni Mutlu, said the public would not be allowed into the square, adding that it would be "unsafe" for protesters to try to gather.

One protester, Mey Elbi, said the demonstrators would not give up.

She told AFP: "We're angry, this is not over. The world has seen that together, we can stand up to Tayyip."

Unrest spread to other parts of Istanbul.

Protesters ripped up paving stones near the Galata bridge and police fired water cannon in the upmarket Nisantasi district.

As night fell, barricades were being erected in a number of city neighbourhoods as youths faced off against police.

Some 1,000 riot police officers earlier arrived at Ataturk Airport from regions as far away as Diyarbakir and Sirnak, local media reported, to try to curb the Istanbul unrest.

Riot police could be seen leaving the city's airport and getting on to coaches bound for the city.