Peaceful anti-government protest in Turkey takes turn for the worse

ALL content used in this not-for-profit blog remain the property of their respective owners.
http://www.todayonline.com/turkish-pm-calls-end-protests

The demonstration started peacefully on Monday at Gezi Park in Taksim with people pitching tents in protest at trees being torn up for the redevelopment.

The unrest was triggered by government plans for a replica Ottoman-era barracks housing shops or apartments in Istanbul’s Taksim Square, long a venue for political protest, but has widened into a broader show of defiance against Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan.

Stone-throwing protesters then started clashing with police in the Kizilay district of central Ankara as a helicopter fired tear gas into the crowds. Riot police with electric shock batons chased demonstrators into side streets and shops.

“People from different backgrounds are coming together. This has become a protest against the government, against Erdogan taking decisions like a king,” said Oral Goktas, a 31-year old architect among a peaceful crowd walking towards Taksim.

Waiters scurried out of luxury hotels lining the square, on what should be a busy weekend for tourists in one of the world’s most visited cities, ferrying lemons to protesters, who squirted the juice in their eyes to mitigate the effects of tear gas.

A helicopter buzzed overhead as groups of mostly young men and women, bandanas or surgical masks tied around their mouths, used Facebook and Twitter on mobile phones to try to organize and regroup in side streets. Police clashed with protesters who lit fires in the streets leading to Erdogan’s Istanbul office.



“Tens of thousands are saying no, they are opposing the dictator,” he said. “The fact that you are the ruling party doesn’t mean you can do whatever you want,” said the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu.

Erdogan has overseen a transformation in Turkey during his decade in power, turning its once crisis-prone economy into the fastest-growing in Europe.

He acknowledged mistakes had been made in the use of tear gas and said the government was investigating, but said the police reserved the right to use reasonable force and vowed that the redevelopment plans for Taksim would go ahead.

“Every four years we hold elections and this nation makes its choice,” he said. “Those who have a problem with government’s policies can express their opinions within the framework of law and democracy,” Erdogan said in a televised speech.

More than 1,000 people have been injured in clashes so far, medics say. Meanwhile, Interior Minister Muammer Guler said 939 arrests had been made in more than 90 separate demonstrations.