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Protesters Flood Into Istanbul Square After Police Withdraw Following Violent Crackdown

By Daniel Politi Posted Saturday, June 1, 2013, at 5:40 PM

[embedded video disabled]

Thousands of people flooded into a central square in Istanbul after police began withdrawing Saturday following a brutal crackdown on demonstrations that have now become huge protests against the ruling regime. The police removed barriers at Taksim Square Saturday in what seemed like an evident effort to ease tensions following two-days of anti-government protests, reports Turkey’s Today’s Zaman .. http://www.todayszaman.com/news-317089-.html . Yet there was violence until the very end, as police fired tear gas into the crowds as some protesters threw objects at the withdrawing forces.

The Associated Press .. http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_TURKEY_PROTEST?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-06-01-16-03-09 .. states what many in the West are probably thinking: This looks a lot like another chapter in the Arab Spring. (Yes, we know the term is far from perfect .. http://www.dailystar.com.lb/Opinion/Columnist/2011/Aug-17/Drop-the-Orientalist-term-Arab-Spring.ashx#axzz2V022D942 .) And indeed, it has lots of the hallmarks, mainly in that what was a small protest about a narrow issue grew into huge anti-government demonstrations as a response to the government’s reaction. So, what exactly happened here? The Guardian .. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/01/turkey-istanbul-erdogan-demo-protests .. has a good, basic explanation:

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The original protest was aimed at saving a city centre park in Istanbul from shopping centre developers who had been backed by the government. But it rapidly snowballed into a national display of anger at the perceived arrogance of the country's rulers.
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In a bid to calm tensions, the government ordered forces to withdraw from the square after they had spent most of the morning firing tear gas and water cannons to try to push back protesters that say development plans would destroy one of the few remaining green spaces in the city, reports the Hurriyet Daily News .. http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/police-withdraw-from-taksim-after-violent-crackdown-as-protesters-remain-defiant-on-5th-day.aspx?pageID=238&nID=48009&NewsCatID=341 . The interior minister said that 939 people were arrested across the country, according to Reuters .. http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/01/us-turkey-protests-idUSBRE94U0J920130601 . Hundreds were injured, and four people permanently lost their eyesight in the protests, according to the AP.

Tensions are likely to continue as protesters have reportedly built barricades to prevent police from returning. And while the government did offer some concessions to the demonstrators it has made it clear it won’t back down. Even as he acknowledged that police used excessive force, Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said he would push ahead with the development plans that sparked the protests in the first place, notes Today’s Zaman .. http://www.todayszaman.com/news-317143-.html .

“To call this a ‘Turkish Spring’ would be over-dramatizing it,” concludes Murat Yetkin in the Hurriyet Daily News .. http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/analysis-erdogan-no-longer-almighty.aspx?pageID=238&nID=48026&NewsCatID=409 . “It could be, if there were opposition forces in Turkey that could move in to stop the one man show of a mighty power holder. But it can easily be said that the Taksim brinkmanship marked a turning point in the almighty image of Erdogan.”

http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2013/06/01/taksim_square_protests_police_in_turkey_withdraw_after_violent_crackdown.html

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Syria Calls on Turkey to Stop Violently Repressing Peaceful Protests

By Daniel Politi Posted Saturday, June 1, 2013, at 4:01 PM .. with links ..


Demonstrators face police Saturday during a march to parliament and the
prime minister's office in Ankara Photo by -/AFP/Getty Images

It sounds like a bad joke out of the Twilight Zone but it’s all too real. Syria’s minister of information told official media that Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan “should resign” if he “is unable to pursue non-violent means” to end growing protests. Syria’s Minister of Information Omran al-Zoubi “added that Erdogan leads his country in a terrorist way and is destroying the civil character of the Turkish people, reiterating that the Turkish people's demands do not deserve all this violence,” notes the report by SANA.

Erdogan was once an ally of President Bashar al-Assad, but turned against him after the Syrian regime violently suppressed protests, a move that led to a violent civil war that has killed at least 80,000 people, reports Reuters. As tone deaf as the comments by Assad’s regime may be, what is going on in Turkey right now is no laughing matter. Thousands of protesters gathered to reoccupy a central park in Istanbul after police violently attacked peaceful protesters who wanted to prevent the construction of a shopping mall at Taksim Gezi Park, reports Bloomberg. The protests were about the park, which has long been a site of political protest, but now have become “the fiercest anti-government demonstrations in years,” according to Reuters, and protesters are calling for Erdogan to resign.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2013/06/01/syria_calls_on_turkey_to_stop_repressing_peaceful_protests.html