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Turkish Police Push Into Square Near Park Protest Turkish Police Push Into Square Near Park Protest
(about 2 hours later)
ISTANBUL — A large force of riot police officers entered Taksim Square early Tuesday, almost immediately firing tear gas grenades and using water cannons to disperse demonstrators who have been occupying the square for more than a week. ISTANBUL — Riot police officers moved into Taksim Square in central Istanbul on Tuesday, firing tear gas grenades and water cannons and enveloping the center of this city with smoke and the sounds of ambulance sirens. The square, which has become a sprawling and eclectic hub of grievance against Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was transformed into a tableau of urban chaos.
Television coverage of the continuing operation showed small groups of people hurling stones and firebombs at police vehicles as security officers fired tear gas. Most of the protesters have remained determinedly peaceful, and the clashes appeared to involve a small group of hooligans. The operation took all day and was still in progress as the workday ended, when more protesters began reoccupying the square and police officers cleared it again with tear gas. The scene took on the air of a movie set: fireworks lit by protesters and nonlethal sound bombs set off by the police punctuated the chants of “Istanbul is ours! Taksim is ours!”
Many protesters retreated to nearby Gezi Park, whose preservation was the initial focus of the protests. But after riot police used tear gas and other harsh measures on May 31, the protest quickly deepened and spread across the country, becoming a broad rebuke to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s 10 years of what many call increasingly authoritarian leadership. At intervals during the day, the police would advance into part of the square, then retreat again to rest, as officers mingled with onlookers, smoked cigarettes or bought snacks from street vendors. Short outbursts of clashes with protesters alternated with intervals of calm, allowing onlookers and tourists to gather in relatively safe spots and watch the action unfold, and then flee down side streets when the tear gas became too thick.
On Tuesday, despite the police use of tear gas and water cannons, Huseyin Avni Mutlu, the governor of Istanbul, said in a Twitter message that the police intended only to remove banners and posters from Taksim. He said people in Taksim, and in the parallel occupation of Gezi Park, which has lasted more than two weeks, would not be disturbed. The police advance was far from decisive in quashing the protest movement that has risen to challenge the rule of Mr. Erdogan and his conservative Justice and Development Party, which has roots in political Islam: Gezi Park, whose preservation was the initial focus of the protests, was left alone to its occupiers, who have erected a tent city there and have vowed to stay.
“Gezi Park and Taksim will never be touched,” he said. “This morning you are in the safe hands of your police brothers.” “We are here for the park and the park only,” said Murat Bal, 27, who stood in the edge of the park as other areas of Taksim Square were being tear-gassed. “We will not yield to the provocation of stone throwers or police violence. We will stay in the park until the end.”
As a group of police officers made its way into the square, they were met with protesters chanting what has become their slogan, “Everywhere Taksim, everywhere resistance.” Officers in riot gear retreated after being confronted by peaceful activists who shielded one of the entryways. The ongoing crisis that has engulfed Mr. Erdogan’s government and threatened to tarnish the image of Turkey as a rising power, which he has helped craft, played out in other venues simultaneously Tuesday: at an Istanbul courthouse, several lawyers who had supported the protesters were detained, and as tear gas filled Taksim Square, Mr. Erdogan addressed his party in a speech broadcast to the nation.
Television coverage showed at least eight protesters standing behind metal shields against the pressure of water cannons. Other scenes showed hundreds of activists wearing gas masks or swimming goggles and spraying soothing liquids into the eyes and mouths of people who had been affected by tear gas. Mr. Erdogan, in keeping with the defiant tone of his recent speeches, called the protest movement “an uprising against the democratic administration.” He described the banners of leftist groups that had decorated the square in the absence of any government authority as those of “terrorist organizations.”
News reports said dozens of people were injured in the clashes, which began around 7 a.m. At least three ambulances drove into the square to gather the injured. “When I speak against all that, they say, ‘The prime minister speaks very harshly.’ If you call this harsh, sorry. Tayyip Erdogan never changes.”
Dozens of barricades made of metal construction panels, wooden blocks and other materials, which had been built by activists and placed in entryways to Taksim, were pushed aside by cranes, clearing the way for police vehicles. An early morning Twitter message from the provincial governor announced the impending operation, and he promised that the police would leave Gezi Park alone. “This morning you are in the safe hands of your police brothers,” wrote the governor, Huseyin Avni Mutlu.
Protesters formed a human chain around Taksim Square for a while, when some representatives persuaded the police to retreat toward Istiklal Avenue, the popular pedestrian mall that leads to the square. The police returned around noon, firing tear gas grenades when some demonstrators tried to restore their posters. At least six armored police vehicles could be seen around the main gathering area in the square. The burst of civil unrest in Turkey began after a relatively small protest to save Gezi Park, which is to be demolished by the government and converted in to a replica Ottoman-era army barracks, was harshly attacked by riot police officers on May 31. The brutality of that crackdown sparked a spontaneous uprising among Turks whose anger against a government they see as increasingly authoritarian had been building for years.
The police used loudspeakers to urge activists inside Gezi Park to remain where they were rather than join the groups outside. On Tuesday, officers were visibly more restrained than they had been on May 31. They fired tear gas mostly when provoked, and did not seem to fire indiscriminately at protesters.
In the afternoon, protesters gathered behind a burning barricade in Tarlabasi Boulevard, one of the main streets leading to Taksim Square. Inside the square, police officers circled the Cumhuriyet monument, an important national symbol celebrating the birth of the Turkish republic, which they had cleared of protesters’ posters and banners. The protesters represent a cross section of Turkish society, including the secular middle class, youth, urban intellectuals and a mosaic of other interests. They cite a litany of complaints against the government, including its vast urban development plans in Istanbul, a crackdown on alcohol and Mr. Erdogan’s leadership style, which they see as increasingly dismissive of the views of those who did not vote for him.
The police also cleared banners from the facade of the Ataturk Cultural Center, an old opera house awaiting destruction by government decree, but they left hanging a poster of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey, and a Turkish flag. Despite the government promise to leave the park alone, many inside it on Tuesday were girding for an attack. People wrote their blood type on their arms with markers as a precaution. Doctors in a makeshift medical tent tended to protesters suffering the effects of tear gas.
There were still scattered clashes as the workday ended. Still, others seemed oblivious to the action. A few napped, and some students were studying for a coming physics exam. “I’m not going to fail my exams and become a bum because of Tayyip,” said Emre Can, 24, a mechanical engineering student.
The operation came a day after the government appeared to change tactics, with Mr. Erdogan agreeing to meet with protest leaders on Wednesday. He added: “We don’t care about the square. If they come into the park that is when we will stand up.”
It was the first public sign that Mr. Erdogan, a popular but stubborn leader who has broadly denounced the protests as the work of looters and thugs, was willing to directly engage at least some of the organizers in a dialogue. In leaving the park alone for now, the government sought to divide the movement between the original protesters and the marginal, mostly leftist, political groups that have co-opted the protests. The banners placed around the square by these groups were removed by the police, who in some corners of the square fought battles against hooligans throwing Molotov cocktails.
The Radikal newspaper said the list of people to meet Mr. Erdogan included Mucella Yapici, the spokeswoman of Taksim Solidarity, and representatives of Greenpeace and the Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly, two nongovernmental organizations. The police also cleared banners from the facade of the Ataturk Cultural Center, an old opera house awaiting destruction by government decree, but left hanging a poster of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey, and a Turkish flag.
The announcement of the meeting, by Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc, came on Monday after a nearly seven-hour cabinet meeting during which members of Mr. Erdogan’s pro-Islamic Justice and Development Party discussed the protests, which have grown into sometimes violent confrontations in more than 60 cities across the country. The vast majority of the protesters have been peaceful, and have disavowed the violence of some groups. “It started with throwing stones, but now the extremists are sinking to the level of the police by throwing fireworks and firebombs,” said Ece Yavuz, 36, who was on the park on Tuesday. “We will not participate in this violence.”
Three people have been killed and more than 2,300 injured in the violence, which has revealed some deep-seated resentment toward Mr. Erdogan. Although he has widespread support across much of Turkey, the protests presented him with one of the biggest political challenges since he became Turkey’s leader a decade ago. The operation came a day after the government appeared to change tactics, with Mr. Erdogan agreeing to meet with protest leaders on Wednesday. It was the first public sign that Mr. Erdogan, a popular but stubborn leader who has broadly denounced the protests as the work of looters and thugs, was willing to directly engage at least some of the organizers in dialogue.
The protests were originally intended as an environmental demonstration meant to save Gezi Park, in the heart of Taksim Square, which the government intends to develop. They escalated when riot police officers used tear gas and water cannons to disperse participants in what even some government officials conceded was an overly harsh response. Three people have been killed and more than 2,300 injured in the violence, which has revealed deep-seated resentment toward Mr. Erdogan. Although he has widespread support across much of Turkey, the protests presented him with one of the biggest political challenges since he became Turkey’s leader a decade ago.
The protesters later widened their grievances into a broad rebuke of what they consider the authoritarian style of Mr. Erdogan and his political party, which is supported by religious conservatives in Turkey. The protesters have demanded the resignation of governors and security chiefs in Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir, the punishment of abusive police officers and the release of people detained in the protests. Some have called for Mr. Erdogan to resign. The movement has mostly been an undertaking by secular Turks against a government many believe is trying to impose its religious views. But in a striking scene Tuesday, a small group of women, including two with headscarves, sat on the ground between police officers and protesters.
Mr. Arinc rejected those demands and contended that international provocateurs, whom he did not further identify, played a role in the violence. “We all have different beliefs and views but we must unite against violence,” said one of the women wearing a headscarf, who refused to give her name. “That is why we should all sit here in silence and resist together.”
But he also sounded conciliatory about the motivations of the Gezi Park protesters. “In terms of actions that started on good intentions, if the subject matter is environmental concerns, if the subject matter is human rights, if the subject matter is democracy, we would very much like to talk and discuss all these with related parties,” Mr. Arinc said.
The prime minister, who was abroad for much of last week as the protests spread, has said that the government would not abandon plans to develop Gezi Park into a replica of an Ottoman-era military barracks originally located there.
Mr. Arinc has said that the government will, for now, follow a local court ruling that the project be halted while public concerns are assessed.