Unrest in Turkey

Mashabane's Turkey Visit Canceled

A working visit by International Relations Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane to Turkey, where violence escalated in the past few days, has been cancelled.

Mashabane was meant to leave Belgium and head for Istanbul, Turkey, on Wednesday, when international media reported a fresh escalation of unrest in Istanbul's Taksim Square.

Her department said she would still leave Belgium as scheduled, but go to Helsinki, Finland, instead.

Riot police used teargas and water cannons to disperse demonstrators who had been protesting for 12 days. The unrest began as a demonstration against the redevelopment of Gezi Park, in Istanbul, but escalated.

The Associated Press on Tuesday reported that the unrest, which spread to 78 towns and cities across Turkey, had allegedly been inspired by what some saw as Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's authoritarian style of governing.

ABC News reported that four people had been killed and nearly 5000 injured.

Mashabane was in Europe this week for trade and political talks with officials in Belgium, Turkey and Finland. She met European Commission vice president Baroness Catherine Ashton on Monday and spoke at length about several issues, including exports.

On Tuesday night, she was scheduled to attend a working dinner with Belgium's Deputy Prime Minister Didier Reynders to discuss bilateral relations between South Africa and Belgium.

The dinner was scheduled to take place at the Palais d'Egmont at 8pm. Belgium is one of South Africa's main development partners. Co-operation between the two countries covers a range of sectors, including development, transport, and logistics.

Of significance was the co-operation agreement between the Ports of Durban and Antwerp, regarded as "longstanding and highly valued".


Source : Sapa /ma/hdw/ad/th
Date : 11 Jun 2013 16:07
 
Erdogan goes hardline, vows no retreat

Numerous arrests and injuries were reported in Turkey on Tuesday, as police and anti-government protesters clashed anew across Istanbul and authorities deployed tear gas, water cannon and armoured vehicles to clear demonstrators.

In Istanbul's Taksim Square, which has become the centre of the anti-government protests, police moved in from the city's Besiktas district in the early morning, when only a few thousand demonstrators remained on the square after more than a week of occupation.

Anti-government protests started there as a demonstration against a building project in the square's Gezi Park but have since grown into widespread condemnation of the government's conservative policies.

The police action reversed a June 1 withdrawal from the area. It came a day after Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan had reportedly offered talks with the protesters, initially set for Wednesday.

Many demonstrators retreated from the park amid the renewed show of force. Authorities spoke of a few injuries, while a doctor's association said there were several hundred injured. Multiple ambulances could be seen at the square.

Also Tuesday, police stormed the city's central Caglayan court after lawyers there began an anti-Erdogan protest. Video footage showed fighting as onlookers booed the action. At least 50 demonstrating lawyers were taken away.

Erdogan defended the police's latest show of force. In a televised speech to members of his ruling conservative Islamic Justice and Development Party (AKP) in Ankara, Erdogan paid tribute to the police leadership and accused demonstrators of widespread vandalism during the course of the two-week occupation of the square and park.

"We won't just end these protests. We will pursue provocateurs and terrorists. No one will escape," he said. "What should we have done? Kneeled down in front of these people and asked them to please remove their banners?"

This was an attempt, aided by foreign powers, to force Turkey economically to its knees and intimidate investors, the premier said.

Protesters said they would not be scared off by the police action, urging one another online to continue the demonstrations, with new protests already planned at Taksim Square.

"Erdogan hasn't understood anything," said one protester at Taksim Square. "I was afraid it would come to this."

Details about the day's events remained unclear. Broadcast images, for instance, showed people throwing Molotov cocktails at police.

According to the daily Hurriyet newspaper, opposition members said via Twitter that those attacking the police had not been present among the demonstrators up until that point. Other images showed the cocktail throwers holding walkie-talkies, fueling speculation that they were government agents sent in to deliberately provoke a fight.

Hurriyet reported that there had been numerous similar claims of undercover police inciting violence all morning.

Istanbul Governer Huseyin Avni Mutlu wrote on Twitter that the purpose of the operation was only to remove banners from a monument to Kemal Ataturk, Turkey's first president, and the Ataturk Cultural Centre.

Police would not move into Gezi Park - situated within the square - where thousands of demonstrators have camped out, he said, while asking the demonstrators to remain calm and not provoke police.

Police used construction machinery to clear barricades that protesters had fashioned from metal parts from a construction site on Taksim Square, abandoned police barrier fences and vandalized cars.

Protesters have accused Erdogan of exercising an authoritarian style of leadership and seeking to impose Islamic values on a secular country.

German Human Rights Commissioner Markus Loening criticized the police action.

"It makes me very worried when I see the use of water cannon and construction machinery," he told n-tv television. "Violence against people" should not be used under any circumstances, he said, adding that responsibility lies "with those who politically have the say."

Three protesters and one policeman have been killed in the protests so far.


Source : Sapa-dpa /sdv
Date : 11 Jun 2013 16:41
 
UN, US Urge Calm

The UN and US government urged authorities in Turkey to respect protesters' right to freedom of assembly late Tuesday, after police attempted to clear demonstrators from Istanbul's Taksim Square.

"We are concerned by any attempts to punish individuals for exercising their right to free speech," US National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon stressed the right to freedom of assembly and called for the dialogue to resolve the protests.

Clashes continued into the night in Istanbul's Taksim Square after police fired tear gas at a group of anti-government protesters in the latest attempt at clearing the square.

The site has become the centre of recent demonstrations, which began as a protest against a building project in the square's Gezi Park but have since grown into widespread condemnation of the government's conservative policies.


Source : Sapa-dpa /mom
Date : 12 Jun 2013 06:32
 
Lawyers Rail at Police Response to Turkish Protests

Thousands of black-robed Turkish lawyers stormed out of their courthouses Wednesday, shouting about the rough treatment police dished out to their colleagues amid Turkey's biggest anti-government protests in years.

The rallies by clapping, chanting jurists added a new twist to the nearly two weeks of protests that started in Istanbul and spread to dozens of other Turkish cities. The protests have shaped up as the biggest test yet in the 10-year rule of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Islamic-rooted government.

Police and protesters mostly retrenched Wednesday after fierce overnight clashes in Istanbul's Taksim Square - a hiatus before Erdogan was to host talks with some protesters later in the day.

Protesters say the prime minister is becoming increasingly authoritarian and is trying to force his deep religious views on all Turks, a charge that Erdogan and his allies strongly deny.

In Ankara and Istanbul, thousands of lawyers railed against the alleged rough treatment of dozens of their colleagues, who police briefly detained in Istanbul on the sidelines of Tuesday's unrest.

Sema Aksoy, the deputy head of the Ankara lawyer's association, said the lawyers were handcuffed and pulled over the ground. She called the police action an affront to Turkey's judicial system.

"Lawyers can't be dragged on the ground!" the demonstrating lawyers shouted in rhythm as they marched out of an Istanbul courthouse. Riot police stood off to the side, shields at the ready.

Turkey's Human Rights Foundation said the Istanbul Public Prosecutor's office had launched an investigation into allegations of excessive use of police force during the protests.

The foundation said 620 people, including a one-year-old baby, were injured during the police crackdown early Wednesday. Police detained some 70 people during the incidents. Prior to this, activists reported that 5,000 people had been injured or seriously affected by the tear gas and four people have died from the protests.

The government, meanwhile, pressed ahead with uncertain efforts to defuse the protests.

President Abdullah Gul, seen by many as a more moderate voice than Erdogan, said the government could not tolerate more of the unrest that has disrupted daily life in Istanbul and beyond. He promised, however, that authorities would listen to protesters' grievances.

"I am hopeful that we will surmount this through democratic maturity," Gul told reporters. "If they have objections, we need to hear them, enter into a dialogue. It is our duty to lend them an ear."

It was unclear exactly who would be taking part in the meeting Wednesday afternoon at the offices of Erdogan's Justice and Development party in Ankara - and whether the meeting will be able to broker an end to the protests.

Activists had doubts about the talks' legitimacy. Only an actor and a singer - with unclear connections to the protesters - had agreed to take part, and some leaders of civil society groups, including Greenpeace, had said they would not participate because of an "environment of violence" in Turkey.

The activist group Taksim Solidarity, which includes academics and architects who oppose the redevelopment plan at nearby Gezi Park, said its members hadn't been invited to the meeting with Erdogan and predicted it would yield no results.

"As police violence continues mercilessly ... these meetings will in no way lead to a solution," the group said in a statement.

The group reiterated its demands, saying Gezi should remain a public park, senior officials behind the police excesses should be fired and all detained protesters should be released.

After Tuesday's violence, traffic returned to Taksim Square with taxis, trucks and pedestrians back on the streets. At one point, some police were seen kicking a soccer ball on the square. Riot police stood off to the side, near a new barricade of wrecked cars and construction material that activists erected before dawn to prevent police from firing tear gas into the square's still occupied Gezi Park.

Hundreds of protesters remained camped out in Gezi Park, clearing up after a night of trying to fend off tear gas, followed by an early morning storm that blew down tents and soaked bedding.

On Tuesday, riot police firing water cannons and tear gas clashed all day and night with pockets of protesters throwing stones and setting off fireworks. The pitched battles didn't simmer down until just before dawn.

Erdogan has insisted the protests and occupations, which he says are hurting Turkey's image and economy, must end immediately and are being organized by extremists and terrorists.

The protests are drawing expressions of concern from abroad.

Germany's government was "following the news from Turkey with great preoccupation, especially the images of yesterday's police action," Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert said Wednesday. "Now de-escalation is needed. Only an open dialogue can contribute to easing the situation."

The protests erupted May 31 after a violent police crackdown on a peaceful sit-in by activists objecting to a development project replacing Gezi Park with a replica Ottoman-era barracks. They then spread to 78 cities across the country and have attracted tens of thousands of people each night.


Source : Sapa-AP /sdv
Date : 12 Jun 2013 16:05
 
Death Toll Rises to 5

A lawyer says a protester injured during clashes with Turkish riot police has died, raising the death toll to five from the two-week standoff between police and activists that has challenged Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government.

The protests centered on Istanbul's Taksim Square looked set to continue Thursday despite a referendum offer over a contested development plan presented a day earlier by Erdogan's party.

Family lawyer Sema Aksoy said 26-year-old Ether Sarisuluk - who had been on a life support for days - was pronounced dead Thursday. He was believed to have been hit in the head by a tear gas canister during protests in Ankara on June 1.

A human rights group says thousands of people were treated for injuries in protests that began May 31.


Source : Sapa-AP /pk
Date : 13 Jun 2013 10:27
 
PM vows to get rid of Trouble Makers

"Troublemakers" will be removed from Istanbul's Taksim Square, Turkey's prime minister declared Thursday, rejecting the European Parliament's resolution condemning the excessive use of force by Turkish riot police against demonstrators.

Ratcheting up his defiant tone, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan appears determined to end two weeks of protests that have put an unflattering international spotlight on his Islamic-rooted government and its handling of the biggest street unrest of his 10-year tenure.

Erdogan's comments came a day after his Justice and Development party proposed a referendum over a development plan at Taksim Square that has fanned the protests. Police have repeatedly fired water cannons, tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse the protesters; five people have died and over 5,000 have been injured. The government says 600 police were injured as well.

"This square belongs to the people of Istanbul, the people of the whole country, and to all international visitors. So we cannot allow troublemakers to hang around freely in this square," Erdogan told local party leaders. "We will clean the square."

Erdogan also lashed out at the European Parliament over its non-binding motion for a resolution that expressed its concern over "the disproportionate and excessive use of force" by Turkish police.

The EU assembly said it "deplores the reactions of the Turkish Government and of Prime Minister Erdogan" - and accused him of adding to the polarization of the situation.

Just minutes before the legislature approved the motion in a show of hands, Erdogan thundered to raucous applause: "I won't recognize the decision that the European Union Parliament is going to take about us ... Who do you think you are by taking such a decision?"

The protests erupted May 31 after a violent police crackdown on a peaceful sit-in by activists objecting to a development project that would cut down the trees in Gezi Park, adjacent to Taksim Square, with a replica of Ottoman-era barracks.

The demonstrations then spread to dozens of cities, rallying tens of thousands of people each night, and broadened to a protest over Erdogan's overall rule.

Protesters who have camped out in a peaceful sit-in in Gezi Park remained on site Thursday. Their continued presence by the hundreds has served as a base for large numbers of protesters who have congregated by the thousands on Taksim Square - usually in the evening, after work.

Also Thursday, 26-year-old Ethem Sarisuluk - who had been on life support for days - was pronounced dead, according to family lawyer Sema Aksoy. He was believed to have been hit in the head by a tear gas canister June 1 during protests in Ankara, though lawyers were going to sit in on the autopsy to verity the exact circumstances leading to his death.


Source : Sapa-AP /sdv
Date : 13 Jun 2013 13:55
 
Suleiman the Magnificent

Not a tea party


Although known to historians and religious experts, the centuries-old political and economic influence of a group known in Turkish as the “Dönmeh” is only beginning to cross the lips of Turks, Arabs, and Israelis who have been reluctant to discuss the presence in Turkey and elsewhere of a sect of Turks descended from a group of Sephardic Jews who were expelled from Spain during the Spanish Inquisition in the 16th and 17th centuries. These Jewish refugees from Spain were welcomed to settle in the Ottoman Empire and over the years they converted to a mystical sect of Islam that eventually mixed Jewish Kabbala and Islamic Sufi semi-mystical beliefs into a sect that eventually championed secularism in post-Ottoman Turkey. It is interesting that “Dönmeh” not only refers to the Jewish “untrustworthy converts” to Islam in Turkey but it is also a derogatory Turkish word for a transvestite, or someone who is claiming to be someone they are not.


Open Sesame -- > The Dönmeh rise to power in Turkey

[video=youtube;XfOpB1uXNUU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfOpB1uXNUU[/video]
 
b@nD said:
Not a tea party


Although known to historians and religious experts, the centuries-old political and economic influence of a group known in Turkish as the “Dönmeh” is only beginning to cross the lips of Turks, Arabs, and Israelis who have been reluctant to discuss the presence in Turkey and elsewhere of a sect of Turks descended from a group of Sephardic Jews who were expelled from Spain during the Spanish Inquisition in the 16th and 17th centuries. These Jewish refugees from Spain were welcomed to settle in the Ottoman Empire and over the years they converted to a mystical sect of Islam that eventually mixed Jewish Kabbala and Islamic Sufi semi-mystical beliefs into a sect that eventually championed secularism in post-Ottoman Turkey. It is interesting that “Dönmeh” not only refers to the Jewish “untrustworthy converts” to Islam in Turkey but it is also a derogatory Turkish word for a transvestite, or someone who is claiming to be someone they are not.


Open Sesame -- > The Dönmeh rise to power in Turkey

[video=youtube;XfOpB1uXNUU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfOpB1uXNUU[/video]
Click to expand...

Interesting....
 
Protestors Positive after Parley with Premier

The Turkish government said Friday it would comply with a court decision that suspended the controversial development of Gezi Park in Istanbul, newspapers quoted a spokesman as saying.

Following a late night meeting between Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and protestors, ruling Justice and Development Party spokesman Huseyin Celik said that the government planned to hold a referendum if the development of the park was given the go-ahead by the courts, according to the Hurriyet daily.

If the court refused permission to build on Gezi Park, the government would abide by that ruling, he said.

Hurriyet quoted a representative of the Taksim Solidarity movement, Tayfun Kahraman, as saying his movement would "react positively to this positive stance."

The movement said on its website that its representatives would share more details about the meeting when they returned to Taksim Square.

Erdogan met protestors from Taksim Square in a last-ditch attempt to resolve the stand-off between the government and protestors in central Istanbul.

The meeting, which started just before midnight Thursday, came hours after Erdogan gave the demonstrators a final warning to leave.

Protests began two weeks ago against a building project planned in the park. A police crackdown prompted demonstrations to break out in other cities and for the protests to widen into criticism of Erdogan and his government.


Source : Sapa-dpa /pk
Date : 14 Jun 2013 09:02
 
Turikish Official Approves 'Standing Man' Protest

Turkey's deputy prime minister gave a nod of approval to a new form of peaceful resistance that is spreading through Turkey on Wednesday as police were questioning dozens of people rounded up in police raids.

Although police dispersed pockets of protesters who set up barricades in two Turkish cities overnight, sometimes violent anti-government demonstrations have largely given way to a passive form of resistance, with people standing motionless.

Hundreds of protesters stood still for hours on squares on main streets in several cities, mimicking a lone protester who started the trend on Istanbul's Taksim Square on Monday and has been dubbed the "Standing Man."

In the first direct government comment on the new style of protest, Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc told reporters that the standing protests are peaceful and "pleasing to the eye." He urged protesters, however, not to obstruct traffic and not to endanger their health.

"This is not an act of violence," Arinc said. "We cannot condemn it."

Police had dispersed hundreds of standing protesters late on Monday but are now allowing the protests to continue unhindered.

Anti-government demonstrations erupted across Turkey after May 31, when riot police brutally cracked down on peaceful environmental activists who opposed plans to remove trees and develop Gezi Park, which lies next to Istanbul's famed Taksim Square.

The protesters have expressed discontent with what they say is the gradual erosion of freedoms and secular values during Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's 10 years in office.

The state-run Anadolu Agency said police overnight used water cannons to scatter hundreds of protesters who set up barricades in the capital Ankara and in Eskisehir, some 140 miles (230 kilometers) further west.

Police on Wednesday were questioning more than 100 people rounded up by police in Istanbul, Ankara and two other cities for alleged involvement in more violent protests, according to Turkey's Human Rights Association. More than 3,000 people have been detained and released since the protests started, it said.

More than 7,500 people have been injured and at least four people - three demonstrators and a police officer - have been killed as police tried to quell the protests using tear gas and water cannons. Authorities are investigating whether a fifth person who died was exposed to too much tear gas.

Erdogan, who has long won praise for steering Turkey toward strong economic growth and raising the country's international profile, has seen his image dented over his government's handling of the unrest.

He has blamed the protests on a plot to bring down his government -elected with 50 percent of the votes - and has constantly lashed out at foreign media and social media.

Arinc on Wednesday denied that Turkey would restrict the use of Twitter or other social media but said the government could consider enacting legislation in a bid to deter users from "inciting crime, spreading lies and disinformation."

Erdogan has branded Twitter the "worst menace" to society and criticized it for spreading "lies." With Turkish media devoting scant coverage to the protests, many have turned to social media for news of the demonstrations.

Erdogan's government has closed down access to Internet sites, including YouTube, in the past.


Source : Sapa-AP /sdv
Date : 19 Jun 2013 13:24
 
Turkey Arrests 23 over protests

Turkish authorities arrested 23 more people on Saturday over their alleged role in this month's anti-government protests, accusing them of acting on behalf of a far-left "terrorist" group, a news report said.

A court in the capital accused them of helping to organise the protests and engaging in violence in the name of the Communist Marxist-Leninist Party (MLKP), CNN-Turk said on its website.

Another three were released but placed under judicial supervision, the report said.

Interior Minister Muammer Guler said the operation had been planned for about a year against the "terrorist" (MLKP), but that the suspects were also implicated in the protests, the most violent since Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Islamist-rooted government came to power in 2002,.

Prosecutors could not immediately confirm the arrests, which follow a sweep last Tuesday against far-left groups in Ankara and Istanbul and bring to at least 47 those detained over the protests that grew from a peaceful demonstration on May 28.

In Istanbul, 18 members of the small far-left Socialist Party of the Oppressed (ESP) were detained in the same operation on Friday and held for "belonging to a terrorist organisation" and "destroying public property".

On Tuesday police had arrested dozens of ESP members and searched the offices of the Atilim newspaper and the Etkin news agency, both tied to the group.

What began as a peaceful protest against plans to demolish Istanbul's Gezi Park, one of the city's last large green spots, turned violent on May 31 when police used tear gas and water cannon to disperse demonstrators.

Police moved in on June 15 to evacuate Gezi Park, the last stronghold of the anti-government protesters after a series of police crackdowns.

The protests claimed at least four lives and left thousands injured.


Source : Sapa-AFP /pd
Date : 22 Jun 2013 13:26
 
I’ve always been a critic of armchair reporting. But when your armchair is four blocks away from Taksim Square, it has one of the best views of the uproar in Istanbul any diligent reporter could ask for. I’m now able to calculate with great precision the time between the beginning of the screaming, the sound of the shot, and the entry of the gas through my window. It’s two and twelve seconds respectively.
In the past month, Americans have seen violent images from Turkey on their television screens: massive clouds of tear gas, the sound of screams and sirens, lots of Turks looking mad as hell.
What’s it about? Another outburst of Muslim rage? Something about kids camping in a park? Isn’t Turkey supposed to be the model moderate Muslim miracle?
But understanding the explosion of violence pitting demonstrators against Turkey’s authoritarian and increasingly heavy-handed state—and why it surprised so many who should have known better—requires some work. Start by forgetting most of what you’ve been hearing for the past ten years about Turkey. Don’t try to compare it to any other country: not America, not Afghanistan, not Egypt, not Syria, not Iran, not Russia, and certainly not France in 1968—not that the latter would occur to you, but the French press seems crazy for the idea.
Here’s what you need to know, bare-bones: The supposedly secular Turkish Republic founded by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk almost a century ago was an authoritarian state, although not a totalitarian one. And yes, Jeanne Kirkpatrick was right, there is a difference. I went behind the Iron Curtain when the Wall was still standing. The USSR was indeed—immediately, visibly, on first sight—an evil empire. The Turkish Republic wasn’t remotely like that; there has never been all-encompassing government enslavement of the citizenry here, nor is there now, and I pray there never will be. But since its emergence after World War I, Turkey has always had weak institutions—and a state that’s strong as an ox.
Over the decades, the authoritarianism has come in different flavors. Once they served it state-worship style, and from time-to-time military style; now they serve it piety style. But it’s still the same thing. They just changed the wrapping paper.....
Click to expand...

http://www.thetower.org/article/the-gezi-diaries-erdogans-turkey-goes-medieval/
 
Alan said:
http://www.thetower.org/article/the-gezi-diaries-erdogans-turkey-goes-medieval/
Click to expand...

Erdoğan scolds the European Parliament: “How dare you adopt a decision about Turkey. Know your place.” He’s furious at the media: “If there are those who really want to know about Turkey, they should come and try to understand the AKP. It’s the truth.” I’m about to faint myself just watching this on television: Turkey is the Party and the Party is Turkey. They have merged.
Click to expand...

Sounds like the anc...
 
Turkey Police fire teargas as Ankara Protestors

Turkish police on Friday fired tear gas at dozens of university students in Ankara protesting a municipal project to build a road across part of their campus.

Police detained 14 people during the demonstration outside the Middle East Technical University (METU) against the city's plans, which include uprooting a large number of trees both inside and outside the campus.

University students began a sit-in protest in the summer. METU's campus is one of the largest green spaces in the Turkish capital.

A peaceful sit-in to save Istanbul's central Gezi Park and its 600 trees from being razed prompted a brutal police response on May 31, spiralling into nationwide protests against the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, seen as increasingly authoritarian.

Five people were killed and thousands injured during the unrest, which presented the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government with its biggest challenge since it came to power in 2002.


Source : Sapa-AFP /lk
Date : 06 Sep 2013 15:04
 
Turkey Police clash with Protestors for third night

Demonstrators clashed with police in southern Turkey on Wednesday for a third straight night, a day after the funeral of a 22-year-old protester whose death at a protest has reignited anti-government anger in Turkey.

Clashes also broke out in parts of Ankara and Istanbul. In the southern city of Hatay, a group of about 200 people confronted police who then responded with tear gas and water cannons.

The death of Ahmet Atakan on Sunday under disputed circumstances has renewed a protest movement that had cooled after thousands took to the streets in June in an expression of discontent against Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government.


Source : Sapa-AP /ss
Date : 11 Sep 2013 22:19
 
Police Clash with Protestors in Istanbul

Turkish police used water cannon and tear gas late Thursday to break up fresh anti-government protests in Istanbul, amid anger over the death of a demonstrator earlier in the week.

Officers faced 2,000-3,000 angry protesters on a second consecutive day of demonstrations in the Kadikoy district, an opposition stronghold.

The police fired tear gas, water cannon and plastic pellets to break up the crowd as it approached the local offices of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Justice and Development Party (AKP).

The incidents lasted several hours, with many protesters arrested, an AFP photographer said.

There were media reports of similar incidents pitting police against demonstrators in the capital Ankara and in the southern city of Antakya, where 22-year-old Ahmet Atakan died during a protest on Monday.

Atakan's death was the sixth recorded in protests since demonstrations against the government of Erdogan, seen as increasingly authoritarian, began in June.

His family said he had been killed by a missile fired by police -- said to be a gas canister-- a version of events denied by Interior Minister Muammer Guler.

He has accused protesters of using the young man's death to "spread chaos".

Local officials said Atakan died after falling from a rooftop where he had been throwing stones at police.

Similar clashes with police broke out in Istanbul and elsewhere on Wednesday night during anti-government protests across Turkey.


Source : Sapa-AFP /nsm
Date : 13 Sep 2013 02:20
 
CLASHES IN TURKEY AFTER PROTEST TEEN DIES

Turkish riot police fired tear gas at protesters outside an Istanbul hospital Tuesday following the death of a teenage boy wounded in mass anti-government demonstrations last year.

((Police responded after several dozen protesters hurled stones at a police bus and stole helmets and shields, an AFP photographer said. At least one demonstrator was injured.))

About 1,000 people massed outside the hospital over the death of 15-year-old Berkin Elvan, who was walking to buy bread when he was hit in the head by a tear gas canister fired by police as mass protests swept Istanbul in June.

In another protest in the Turkish capital Ankara, police fired tear gas and water cannon at around 1,000 students who gathered outside the Middle East Technical University, an opposition stronghold, and blocked a major highway.

Several hundred protesters also gathered in the central Kizilay square, according to local media.

Elvan's story -- he spent 269 days in a coma -- gripped the nation and became a symbol of the heavy-handed tactics used by police to reign in the biggest demonstrations against Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan since he came to power in 2003.

His mother Gulsum Elvan, speaking to reporters outside the hospital, challenged Erdogan who had praised police "heroism" during the protests.

"It's not God who took my son away but prime minister Erdogan," she said through tears.

President Abdullah Gul, who called Elvan's family after his health deteriorated while he was in a coma, expressed his sadness on Tuesday, urging everyone "to do everything to prevent this from happening again".

The June protests began as a small environmental movement to save an Istanbul park and snowballed into a nationwide wave of protests against Erdogan, who critics say has become increasingly authoritarian.

Elvan's death brought the toll from the unrest to at least eight including a policeman.

An estimated 2.5 million people took to the streets across Turkey over three weeks in June to demand Erdogan's resignation. More than 8,000 people were injured, according to medics.


Source : Sapa-AFP /ge
Date : 11 Mar 2014 14:55
 
CLASHES IN TURKEY AS PROTESTERS MOURN TEEN DEATH
by Dilay GUNDOGAN

Riot police fired tear gas and water cannon at protesters in Ankara and Istanbul on Wednesday as tens of thousands took to the streets to mourn a teenage boy who died from injuries suffered in last year's anti-government protests.

In the Turkish capital, police clashed with demonstrators as they tried to stop traffic, making a number of arrests and leaving several injured.

In Istanbul, large crowds shouting anti-government slogans lit a huge fire as they made their way to a cemetery for the burial of 15-year-old Berkin Elvan.

Scuffles broke out when police tried to prevent a group of protesters from gathering on the city's Taksim Square, the epicentre of last June's mass protests.

In the western city of Izmir, one woman was left with a broken leg and several others were hospitalised after police tried to stop crowds marching towards local government buildings, news channel NTV reported.

In Tunceli, in the east, the Dogan news agency reported that a 30-year-old policeman had died of a heart attack after officers had confronted protestors.

Elvan, who died in an Istanbul hospital on Tuesday after 269 days in a coma, was hit on the head by a tear gas canister while going to buy bread during the protests against Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan that gripped Turkey in June.

"Berkin's murderers are the AKP police," protesters shouted in Istanbul, referring to Erdogan's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).

"The rage of mothers will suffocate the killers," screamed others as they marched through the streets after Elvan's funeral.

The renewed unrest, following clashes in at least 32 cities on Tuesday, adds to mounting pressure on Erdogan, whose government has been rocked by a corruption scandal ahead of elections that could decide his fate.

Elvan's story became a symbol for many Turks of the heavy-handed police tactics against mass anti-government demonstrators in June, a major challenge to Erdogan's 11-year-rule.

On the election trail Wednesday, Erdogan downplayed the fresh wave of protests.

"A government can only be changed at ballot box," he said at a rally in the southeastern Mardin province.

The prime minister has vowed to step down if the AKP, in power since 2002, loses local elections on March 30 that are seen as a key test of his popularity after last year's unrest and an ongoing graft probe that has ensnared key AKP allies.

"How many young people have to die for Erdogan to resign? My only wish is for this fascism to end without spilling more blood," said retired worker Atilla Izmirlioglu.

Government spokesman Bulent Arinc said Turkey had been in mourning since Elvan's death.

"It is very sad that a child has died in an incident that occurred on the street," he said.

The protests of June last year started as a relatively small environmentalist movement to save Istanbul's Gezi Park but evolved into a nationwide wave of protests against Erdogan, seen as increasingly authoritarian.

An estimated 2.5 million people took to the streets across Turkey over three weeks in June. More than 8,000 people were injured and eight killed, according to medics.

The boy's mother, Gulsum Elvan, has lashed out at Erdogan, who at the time praised police "heroism".

"It's not God who took my son away but Prime Minister Erdogan," the tearful mother told reporters on Tuesday.

Protestors hung "wanted" posters featuring pictures of Erdogan on bus stops in Ankara's Kizilay square. Others carried banners warning: "Murderer state, you will be held accountable!"

"Erdogan's police killed this guy. He should be ashamed but he didn't even send his condolences to the family," said a student who gave her name as Ayse.

"Enough is enough, we are fed up with this government of murderers," she told AFP.

President Abdullah Gul expressed his sadness Tuesday at the boy's death and appealed for calm, urging everyone "to do everything to prevent this from happening again".

But several political parties and trade unions called for mass demonstrations after Elvan's funeral.

"Their children steal millions and our children are killed when they go to buy bread," said the Disk union.

The union was referring to the sons of three government ministers who were arrested in December as part of a high-level investigation into bribery and corruption allegations.

The premier himself has been implicated in the scandal, with leaked recordings surfacing online in which he purportedly can be heard talking to his son about hiding millions of euros in cash. Erdogan has dismissed the recordings as being fabricated by opponents.

In the wake of the corruption controversy, the AKP-dominated parliament passed new legislation tightening state control over the Internet and the judiciary, attracting widespread criticism and raising questions about the state of democracy in Turkey.

On Wednesday, the European Parliament warned that the new laws could hinder Turkey's bid to enter the bloc.

The measures "derail Turkey's progress towards achieving the criteria" for EU accession, the lawmakers said in a resolution.


Source : Sapa-AFP /ns
Date : 13 Mar 2014 00:27
 
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