Turkey protests rage for second day

Police fire tear gas and water cannon in Istanbul as prime minister stands firm on controversial redevelopment project.

Last Modified: 01 Jun 2013 13:47

Police in Istanbul have fired tear gas and water cannons at protesters trying to reach a symbolic landmark during a second day of anti-government demonstrations.

Protesters chanted "unite against fascism" and "government resign" on Saturday as they tried to reach Taksim Square, which has long been a venue for political unrest.

Al Jazeera's Gokhan Yivciger reported that there were fierce clashes at police barricades in Harbiye district, about 2km from the square, with riot squads firing salvos of tear gas. An estimated 10,000 people have gathered in the district.

Police also quelled protests this morning in Besiktas neighbourhood, which is on the shores of the Bosphorus nearer to the square.

Saturday's violence came a day after scores of people were injured in clashes in central Istanbul, with 60 people detained around Taksim. Broken glass and rocks were strewn across a main shopping street near the square.

The protest at Taksim's Gezi Park began late on Monday after trees were torn up over a government redevelopment plan. It has now widened into a broader demonstration against what protesters see as increasingly authoritarian rule.

"The protesters are saying that this is not about trees anymore," said Al Jazeera's Rawya Rageh, reporting from Istanbul.

Ibrahin Kalin, the chief adviser to the prime minister, said police had been ordered to withdraw from the area. He told Al Jazeera that tear gas had been fired in response to a group of protesters attacking police as they were leaving the premises.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan acknowledged on Saturday that it was a mistake to use tear gas on the public protesting earlier this week on the planned demolition of Gezi Park.

"There was a mistake while using pepper gas by police forces. Okay. I have ordered the Interior Ministry to investigate this. It was excessive" he said. He, however, said the redevelopment plan for the park would go ahead.

Growing disquiet

Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the leader of the main opposition Republican People's Party, called on Erdogan to withdraw police from the Gezi Park area, and criticised Istanbul governor Huseyin Avni Mutlu over his handling of the situation.

"From now on, in reality, there is no governor in Istanbul", Kilicdaroglu said in a statement.

The unrest reflects growing disquiet at Erdogan's administration and his Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party.

There have been protests against the government's stance on the conflict in neighbouring Syria, a tightening of restrictions on alcohol sales and warnings against public displays of affection.

However, Erdogan has overseen a transformation in Turkey during his decade in power, turning its economy from crisis-prone into Europe's fastest-growing.

Per capita income has tripled in nominal terms since his party rose to power.

He also remains by far Turkey's most popular politician, and is widely viewed as its most powerful leader since Mustafa Kemal Ataturk founded the modern secular republic on the ashes of the Ottoman Empire 90 years ago.

Taksim Square is the buzzing centre of Turkey's Istanbul. On the first day of May, however, the entertainment district that never sleeps was stripped of its bright colours and plunged into quietness.

It was sealed off and blanketed by a blue wall of police with the greys of the metal barriers that, in a series of circles, expanded towards the outer city as defensive as the walls of the ancient Constantinople once were.

For May Day this year, a contingent of 22,000 police was on duty around Taksim Square, equipped with water cannons, tear gas and pepper gas. Their task was to prevent the entry of trade unions, workers, members of leftist parties and civilians who wanted to mark May Day on the spot where more 30 people died in a hail of bullets in 1977.

Many fought to break through. As in all battles, casualties were inevitable. The roll call for the day will read 22 injured, three of them in a critical condition. The wounded include members of the police force and opposition members of parliament. More than 70 people were detained.

The strategy to avert casualties was carefully planned and deemed a success by the governor of Istanbul, Huseyin Avni Mutlu, in a press conference on Wednesday. Key to the strategy to prevent any mass May Day rally in Taksim was for the city of more 15 million people be locked down, paralysing life and immobilising the potential threats by Istanbulians.

The city that proudly bridges Europe and Asia was no longer a passage but was at standstill. Even the waterway dividing Istanbul, normally only closed due to extreme weather conditions, saw traffic cease to flow on a sunny day. Public transport was stopped, ferries ordered back to port and roads blocked.

Memories of killings

May Day was commemorated by thousands on a location designated by the government on the Asian side of the city in the suburb of Kadikoy, a continent away from the European side's Taksim Square, where the memory of those who fell in the still unsolved killings of 1977 still lingers.

Those trying the break rows of barricades were described by Governor Mutlu as "marginal groups", though those same marginal groups had in fact marked May Day peacefully and with state permission for the past two years in Taksim Square - a brief intermission, it seems, in the ban imposed in the wake of the 1977 shootings.

This year, the government used ongoing road works as an excuse to reintroduce the ban on marking May Day in Taksim Square, saying public safety was their main concern. But were this the case, then the barriers used to close off the area could have been used to close off the construction site that so worried the government.

However, freeing Taksim Square of its bloody past was not possible this May 1.

Under siege by security forces, beneath grey smoke, with the lingering peppery smell of the gas and hovering helicopters in the air, another ghost of Turkey’s past re-emerged in the memories of many Turks.

The scenes at Taksim on Wednesday reminded Turks once again of their dark era, the curfews of the 1980 coup d'etat. Caught by the muscle-flexing of the authorities, how could the Turks exorcise the ghosts of their past?