Thousands Protest In Mass Rallies In Istanbul, Ankara, Eskisehir,
Clash And Arrests Continue
By Countercurrents.org
23 June 2013
Countercurrents.org
Protests by thousands of people in mass rallies and clashes erupted once again in Turkish capital city Ankara , Istanbul , Izmir and Eskisehir over the last few days. Arrests were also made. In a bizarre volte- face Turkish prime minister Erdogan announced that a mosque will be built on Taksim Square . He had earlier promied the agitators that the plan to build a shopping mall and Artillery Barracks project in Taksim square will be put on hold. Many accuse Erdogan of pursuing an Islamist agenda, threatening Turkey 's secular political tradition.
Erdogan said the much debated Atatürk Cultural Center should be demolished, proposing to build an opera house and a mosque there instead. “A mosque will be built in Taksim,” said Erdogan.
Riot police intervened with water cannons around 8:35 p.m. local time to the people peacefully gathered at the Taksim Square . DHA photo
Protesters were arrested in Ankara in the early hours of June 22. AA photo
An Istanbul datelined Hurriyet Daily News report [2] said:
Police intervened with water cannons against thousands of protesters peaceful gathered on June 22, 2013 in Istanbul's Taksim Square, a week after the police cleared Gezi Park, the heart of countrywide demonstrations, after a muscled crackdown.
Riot police used water cannons to quell the demonstration. Many protesters dispersed. The square was mostly cleared after the intervention. But some protesters regrouped at the Istiklal Avenue which intersects with the square.
The Taksim Solidarity Platform had called on protesters to hold carnations to commemorate the four casualties of the protests and demand the implementation of their previous conditions put forward in talks with the government during the three-week-long demonstrations.
Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) deputies Sirri Süreyya Önder, Sabahat Tuncel and Ertugrul Kürkçü also attended the demonstration.
No political messages or flags were displayed as protesters only brought Taksim Platform banners and the national flag.
The crowd condemned the closure of the park, chanting "open park, belonging to the public."
The police did not let the protesters enter back into Gezi Park , which has been cordoned off since last week. Only nine members of the Taksim Platform were allowed by the Istanbul 's Governor Office to lay flowers in the memory of the three demonstrators and one police officer who died during the wave of protests.
Ankara
Another Ankara/Istanbul datelined report [3] said:
Clashes broke out again late on June 21 Kennedy Avenue, which became the center of clashes. Police used tear gas and water cannons against a group of protesters who were making barricades on the road. The protesters dispersed to side streets after the police intervention. One protester reportedly passed out as a result of the tear gas.
Ankara has witnessed violent police crackdowns during the demonstrations over the last three weeks with frequent clashes late at night between security forces and protesters.
Thirty-one people have been arrested over the Gezi Park protests in Ankara and Istanbul .
An Ankara court ordered the arrest of 22 protesters in the early hours of June 22.
During the hearing, a small group assembled outside the court to protest the prosecution of those who had participated in demonstrations.
In Istanbul , 67 demonstrators face charges of provoking violence, and being a member of a terrorist organization.
Another report [4] (a live update during protests) that provide further information on protests in Turkey said:
Hundreds of people gathered in Istanbul 's Taksim Square . Riot police moved on the demonstrators, greeted by a wave of loud boos from the crowd, who still vastly outnumber them. Police deployed the water cannon down a narrow side street into a dense crowd on June 22, 2013 . The square is drenched and almost empty but protesters lingered in the surrounding streets. Protesters threw red carnations to police officers in an attempt to keep the demonstration peaceful. Some struggles between individual protesters and the wall of police shields. People put on gas masks.
People chanted "this is only the beginning of our struggle,” as they gather in the square.
The demonstration was scheduled for 7 p.m. Saturday (local time) in Taksim Square , with other discussion forums being held across Istanbul 's parks. Plans were also in place to leave carnations in Özgürlük Meydani ( Freedom Square ).
In the third week of protests, the Turkish government is applying preventative measures to quell public discontent. Heavy law enforcement presence is seen in Turkey as police trucks use water cannons and tear gas before clusters of protests gain the momentum.
“The police are trying to screw down the pressure on these protesters,” RT's Tom Barton reported from the scene in Ankara , adding that the police stopped crowds from forming as “trucks with water cannons charged up the street” spraying protesters. “A real liberal use of water canon there, stripping the bark of trees, leaving debris scattered in the roads,” Barton noted.
As patches of protesters fled to side streets, “a lot of gas use” was made to disperse the activists. Barton explained that water canon vehicles “can also squirt tear gas from the sides of the truck.”
“Any protester approaching it gets a blast of this stuff in his face,” Barton reported explaining that “all of this is forcing the protestors onto the side streets” as police also “fired gas canisters.”
Barton says this has further enraged the protesters as “evidence of heavy tactics by the police force that they criticize for protecting Prime Minister's Erdogan authoritarian government.”
On June 21, 2013 , Police raided tents set up in Izmir 's Gündogdu Square in support of the Gezi Park protests. Around 30 of the demonstrators who had been camping were detained by police after they began to fight back against the forced removal of their tents. The confrontation followed a previous attempt to converse with the police.
Police arrested more than 100 protesters in Izmir during a demonstration and carried out 15 house raids.
Police dispersed 5,000 demonstrators during overnight protests in the northern city of Eskisehir .
In Ankara , police launched a surprise assault on the protesters making them “very shocked from the sudden onrush of these police vehicles.”
Earlier on Wednesday, thousands of activists flocked into Taksim Square and held a candlelit vigil in Abbasaga Park for those killed during last week's clashes.
Turkish police was running out of pepper spray canisters, TV channel CNN Turk reported. Turkey 's security department is drawing up a contract to refill its stocks of non-lethal weapons. So far, 130,000 pepper spray canisters were used against the demonstrators, as protests rocking the country enter their third week.
Hundreds of protesters stood still on the squares and main streets of several cities across Turkey on Wednesday, following the lone protester who started the trend on Taksim Square , dubbed the ‘ Standing Man. '
Around 5,000 demonstrators joined an all-night protest on Tuesday that stretched into early morning Wednesday. Police then intervened with gas bombs and water cannons. Three protesters, a journalist and a police officer were injured.
Police in Ankara made 25 arrests on Tuesday in multiple raids at addresses across the Turkish capital, local media reported. In a similar crackdown in Istanbul officers took 66 activists into custody, as well as 13 in the western city of Eskisehir .
On Monday the security apparatus used force to disperse trade union strikers with tear gas and water cannon. The government also called the general strike announced by unions “illegal.” Despite this, Turkish trade unionists are calling for more strikes and marches in cities across the nation.
Police tear gassed and dispersed the trade unionists' sit-in in Istanbul 's Sisli district. KESK members sat-in protest against police barricade.
A group of protesters wearing white masks have occupied the area in front of the Turkish consulate in Venice . The demonstrators say it is an act of solidarity for the anti-government protesters in Turkey . The following Tweet came up:
#OccupyGezi is everywhere. TurkishConsulate occupied in #Venice . #taksim #occupygezi #direngezi , #direngeziparki pic.twitter.com/Oj9mikEpS3— globalproject.info ( @global_project ) June 17, 2013
Riot police in Ankara have issued warning to around 1,000 trade union workers who are blocking a main avenue in the city center. Police threatened that force will be used to break up the protesters if they do not disperse of their own volition.
June 17
While Taksim is apparently empty, large groups of protesters have headed to the nearby Besiktas Square .
Hundreds of protesters have blocked Istanbul 's major E-5 highway near Avcilar, chanting anti-government slogans.
Fierce clashes in Nisantasi and Tesvikiye neighborhoods in central Istanbul.
The whole Taksim neighborhood took to their balconies to bang pots in protest of prime minister Erdogan, RT's Bel Trew reported from Istanbul .
It's extraordinary, everywhere I see people on their balconies with whistles, pots, pans, tambourines anything banging them against #erdogan — Bel Trew
A crowd of people tried to lynch anti-government protesters in the Central Anatolia Region city of Konya , Hurriyet reported. Police reportedly intervened, placing the protesters on buses away from the scene.
A Turkish opposition party member has claimed that his nose was broken during protests on Saturday night in Istanbul . Ramis Topal, a member of the Republican People's Party said he was injured when police moved in to clear out protesters from Gezi Park .
“A policeman threw a helmet right into my face by aiming,” the newspaper quoted Topal as saying,” he told daily newspaper, the Rafikal. He added that police also kicked him when he tried to prevent them from launching tear gas into a hotel where some injured people were being treated.
The video posted on social networks allegedly shows police using water cannon against protesters taking refuge at the German Hospital not far from Taksim Square .
Source:
[1] Hürriyet Daily News, June 23, 2013 ,
[2] “Police intervene with water cannons against protesters gathered at Taksim Square ”, http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/police-intervene-with-water-cannons-against-protesters-gathered-at-taksim-square.aspx?pageID=238&nID=49275&NewsCatID=341
[3] “31 protesters arrested over Gezi Park protests in Ankara and Istanbul ”, Hurriyet Daily News/Dogan News Agency, http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/31-protesters-arrested-over-gezi-park-protests-in-ankara-and-istanbul.aspx?pageID=238&nID=49266&NewsCatID=341
[4] “Turkish police clamp down on anti-government protests: LIVE UPDATES”, June 22, 2013 , http://rt.com/news/istanbul-park-protests-police-095/
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