ANTI-GOVERNMENT protesters confronting riot police in Istanbul’s Taksim Square and its adjoining Gezi Park yesterday, issued a call for Turkish citizens to join them at 7.00pm last night for a mass mobilisation in defence of the square.
At 4.00pm yesterday troops were being moved into the square.
Prime Minister Erdogan had issued a stern, provocotive warning earlier in the day, saying: ‘It’s over, be warned, we will not tolerate it any more.’
Throughout the day police trucks spewed arcs of water cannon against protesters, and massive earth-movers were brought into the square to tear down barricades which had been erected.
As police fired water cannon, tear gas and rubber bullets at protesters, causing them to flee the square and back into Gezi Park, where thousands of people are now living, Erdogan spoke to MPs from his ruling AKP party.
In his speech, which was broadcast live and frequently interrupted by applause, he said: ‘What did the protesters expect? That we would kneel down before them?’
He appeared to contradict Istanbul Governor Huseyin Avni Mutlu, who had earlier said the police had no intention of breaking up the protest in Gezi Park.
‘I invite them to withdraw from the park and I ask this as prime minister. I am sorry but Gezi Park is for taking promenades, not for occupation.’
Several dozen riot police had briefly entered the park during the day, but withdrew back into Taksim Square when they were confronted by thousands of protesters among the trees.
Police removed protesters’ banners which had been hung from a building overlooking Taksim Square, replacing them with the national flag and a portrait of Kemal Ataturk.
Erdogan praised the troops for removing the ‘rags’ as he branded the revolutionary symbols.
In his speech Erdogan described the protesters at Gezi Park as ‘violent mobs’, blaming them for public disturbances, damaging property, injuring police officers and scaring off international investors.
‘95 per cent of the protesters in Taksim did not know’ the location of the Gezi Park before the protest started, he claimed.
Protests occurred in the capital, Ankara, yesterday too, where police have also used water cannon and tear gas to attack demonstrations almost every night.
Turkish police also attacked protesting lawyers at a courthouse yesterday, making many arrests.
Four people have died and more than 5,000 have been injured since the protests began.
• Unison yesterday said it has joined the international trade union movement in calling for the Turkish government to stop the brutal crackdown on protests against its increasingly authoritarian style.
The European Public Services Union (EPSU), to which Unison is affiliated, said: ‘People have the right to express their concerns and engage in protests and industrial action against government policy they disagree with.’
