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Turkish Premier Blames Extremists for Protests as Two Are Killed
(about 11 hours later)
ISTANBUL — Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey said Monday that rioting that has led to more than 1,700 arrests was the work of extremists led by political opponents trying to challenge his government, but the Turkish president called the protests a tool of democracy.
ISTANBUL — As protests continued for a fourth day in major Turkish cities on Monday, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the demonstrations were the work of extremists led by political opponents trying to overthrow his government. But Turkey’s president, Abdullah Gul, called for calm from all sides and said that protests and demonstrations were a natural part of democracy.
Istanbul was calmer after clashes here and in other cities, including Ankara and Izmir, died down. Security forces used tear gas and water cannons on Sunday night and early Monday on crowds of mostly youthful demonstrators who called for an end to Mr. Erdogan’s more than 10 years in power.
Protesters gathered again in Istanbul and other cities Monday evening, after security forces used tear gas and water cannons overnight on crowds of mostly youthful demonstrators in Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir who were calling for an end to Mr. Erdogan’s more than 10 years in power.
Mr. Erdogan accused the main opposition party of using the demonstrations, which flared into a widespread confrontation with security forces on Friday, for political gain.
For the first time, deaths were reported at two demonstrations: one protester died in Ankara after a vehicle slammed into a crowd there late Sunday night, The Associated Press reported, citing a medical official. And in the southern border town of Hatay, an opposition party deputy reported on the Web channel Halk TV that a 22-year-old man whom he identified as Abdullah Can Comert was struck in the head by at least one of four bullets fired from an armored police vehicle. Mr. Erdogan accused the main opposition party of using the demonstrations, which flared into a widespread confrontation with security forces on Friday, for political gain.
“If we set aside those that joined upon their innocent motives and information they got from the media, there are also ones that attended an event organized by extremists,” Mr. Erdogan said in a televised speech. He suggested the possibility of foreign provocation, although he did specify its origin.
“If we set aside those that joined upon their innocent motives and information they got from the media, there are also ones that attended an event organized by extremists,” Mr. Erdogan said in a speech. He suggested the possibility of foreign provocation, although he did not specify its origin.
“Our intelligence agency has their own investigation on that. There is no need to disclose them as this or that,” he said.
“Our intelligence agency has their own investigation on that — there is no need to disclose them as this or that,” he said.
Speaking at a news conference before departing for Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia on an official visit, he also dismissed concerns that measures, like a recent move to regulate sales and use of alcohol, targeted secular lifestyles.
Speaking at a news conference before leaving for an official visit to Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia, Mr. Erdogan also dismissed concerns that recent government actions , like tightened regulations on alcohol sales and use, were attacks on the lifestyles of secular Turks.
His opponents regard Mr. Erdogan’s decision to leave Turkey as waves of protesters have taken to the streets as irresponsible.
Opponents called Mr. Erdogan’s decision to go ahead with the overseas trip irresponsible.
President Abdullah Gul, speaking in Izmir, where thousands of demonstrators battled the police on Sunday night and early Monday, underlined the importance of democratic opposition in political life.
President Gul spoke on Monday in Izmir, where thousands of demonstrators battled the police overnight. He underlined the importance of democratic opposition in political life.
After Mr. Erdogan referred to his electoral victories as a license to carry out policies as he saw fit, Mr. Gul stressed the limited weight of parliamentary majority in creating true democracies.
While Mr. Erdogan referred to his electoral victories and his parliamentary majority as a license to carry out policies as he saw fit, Mr. Gul stressed that true democracy “does not only mean elections.”
Democracy, he said, “does not only mean elections.”
“There is nothing more natural than various ways of expression other than elections if there are different views, different situations, objections,” he said. “Peaceful protests are surely a part of that.”
“There is nothing more natural than various ways of expression other than elections if there are different views, different situations, objections,” he said. Peaceful protests are surely a part of that.”
C.
J. Chivers contributed reporting and Ceylan Yeginsu contributed reporting from Istanbul.
On Sunday, Mr. Erdogan dismissed the tens of thousands of protesters as “looters” and “bums.” He vowed to push ahead with plans to demolish a public park at Taksim Square — a trigger for the public anger that left Istanbul’s main commercial district strewn with graffiti and broken glass.
“We will not yield to a few looters coming to that square and provoking our people, our nation, based on their misinformation,” Mr. Erdogan said in a speech carried live on television. He brushed aside the protesters’ accusations that he was becoming dictatorial, saying he was simply “a servant of the people.”
For much of Sunday, the mood at the protests in Taksim Square was one of celebration. Tens of thousands of demonstrators returned to the square claiming victory after the police withdrew on Saturday. The protesters erected improvised barricades of construction materials and burned public buses on streets leading to the square, replacing the ones that city workers had cleared away the day before.
But on Sunday night, the police fired tear gas on protesters in Besiktas, a nearby neighborhood. Protesters also confronted the police and were met with tear gas in the capital, Ankara, and in Izmir on the Aegean coast, underscoring that the civil unrest directed at Mr. Erdogan has yet to run its course.
Mr. Erdogan said the protests were the work of the main opposition bloc, the Republican People’s Party, known by its Turkish initials C.H.P. He said the government would move ahead with controversial development projects, which would involve demolishing the park and building a mosque nearby, which secular Turks have opposed as another effort by Mr. Erdogan and his political party, Justice and Development, to expand the role of religion in Turkish society.
Though the demonstrations in Istanbul began in reaction to the plan to demolish the park, they soon grew into a broad reproach of Mr. Erdogan’s decade-long rule, which many Turks say has produced an overbearing government that dismisses the concerns of secular citizens. The protests came after Parliament passed a controversial law restricting the sale and consumption of alcohol; on Saturday night, after reoccupying Taksim Square, many protesters broke out bottles of beer and chanted slogans calling on Mr. Erdogan to resign.
The calmer and more festive mood that prevailed in the square most of Sunday contrasted with the scene on Saturday, when some demonstrators destroyed police vehicles and bashed in the windows of bulldozers. There were concerts, picnics, barbecues and poetry recitals on Sunday, and volunteers were promising free kofte — Turkish meatballs — for anyone who helped clean up the mess that was left in and around the park after the clashes on Saturday.
One of the volunteers was Ayse Duygu, 22, who supports Mr. Erdogan. “I’m not here for politics,” she said. “I just want to clean up my city, which these hooligans destroyed.”
The long-term political implications of the protests are unclear. Analysts said that Mr. Erdogan’s grip on power was not in jeopardy; he can still count on strong support from religious conservatives, a large part of the electorate. But some analysts suggested that the protests might influence Mr. Erdogan’s leadership style, perhaps prompting him to pay more attention to the views of more secular Turks.
“Erdogan might have a majority of voters, but has to be the prime minister for us all,” said Ozgur Ulus, 40. “He cannot just say, ‘Yes, because I say so.’ He has to acknowledge me.” Mr. Ulus said he joined the protests after seeing “people being gassed like insects.”
Turkey’s interior minister, Muammer Guler, said Sunday that protests were continuing in the cities of Eskisehir, Adana and Antalya as well as in Ankara. In all, he said, there had been protests in 67 cities and towns in recent days. The semiofficial Anatolian News Agency reported that 115 members of the security forces and 58 civilians had been injured.
In his remarks, Mr. Erdogan criticized Twitter, which became an important conduit of news — and unfounded rumors — about the demonstrations, which were not covered aggressively in the Turkish news media.
“Now we have a menace that is called Twitter,” he said. “The best examples of lies can be found there. To me, social media is the worst menace to society.”
Ceylan Yeginsu contributed reporting from Istanbul.
