The Turkish government split yesterday in the face of mass uprisings and a general strike by Turkish workers and youth.
In Ankara, the Deputy Prime Minister, Bulent Arinc, called the protests against the regime ‘just and legitimate’ while the Turkish Premier, Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaking in Morocco, dismissed those opposed to him as ‘saboteurs’.
The deputy PM, speaking at a news conference, apologised to all those who had been injured in the clashes with state forces.
He also offered to meet the organisers of the protests against the Gezi Park redevelopment.
The protests against the Erdogan regime, sparked by government plans to build a military barracks and memorial in the park, have escalated over the past five days with mass unrest in Istanbul and the capital Ankara, and other cities across the country.
Mass demonstrations have been violently attacked by Turkish security forces who have killed four, injured hundreds and arrested thousands.
The Turkish police fired rubber bullets last night on demonstrators in Kavachledary district in Ankara as dozens of tear gas canisters were fired to disperse protesters in the Gumusoyo district on the European bank of Istanbul.
The Confederation of Public Workers’ Unions (KESK) launched a two-day strike from Tuesday over the heavy-handed police actions.
‘The state terror implemented against entirely peaceful protests is continuing in a way that threatens civilians’ life safety,’ the KESK said in a statement, saying the crackdown showed the Islamic-rooted government’s ‘enmity to democracy’.
The confederation counts about 240,000 members and the strike has stopped schools, universities and public offices across Turkey.
Meanwhile, the Editor-in-chief of Turkish Sol newspaper, Can Soyer, has said that Turkish police stormed into the newspaper’s offices and tampered with its contents because of its ‘objective’ coverage of the protests.
In a statement to the Syrian TV network on Monday, Soyer said that the Turkish mass media, including newspapers and television channels, are exposed to attacks and harassment by the police.
He said : ‘We will continue to convey the truth in Turkey since we have principle, we are working in the press not for money but to convey the facts’.
He stressed that Turkey has been suffering censorship on the mass media, which has increased recently with the increasing government pressure.
Currently out of the country on a state visit, in a joint press conference with his Moroccan counterpart Abdullah bin Kiran, Erdogan dismissed the protests calling for him to step down, saying that they did not represent a ‘Turkish Spring’ and that security forces were cracking down and the country would ‘return to normal within a few days’.
Erdogan went on to say that he continues supporting what he calls ‘the popular movement in Syria’.