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Turkish Police Push Into Square Near Park Protest Turkish Police Push Into Square Near Park Protest
(about 7 hours later)
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. ISTANBUL — Taksim Square erupted in chaos on Tuesday night as the riot police hit protesters with tear gas and water cannons, sending thousands of people fleeing down side streets, and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey struggled to contain a political crisis that has threatened the nation’s economy and paralyzed the government.
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!” For nearly two weeks, the prime minister has remained largely defiant, demanding that protesters leave the square, placing armed police officers on standby to sweep the area and insisting the demonstrations were nothing like the Arab Spring protests that ousted entrenched leaders. But as homemade firebombs and tear gas wafted in the city center it seemed that Mr. Erdogan and his supporters had miscalculated the opposition’s tenacity and conviction.
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. “Thugs! Thugs!” a protester shouted at the police as she was shrouded in a cloud of tear gas. “Let God bring the end of you!”
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. The demonstrations began over a plan to tear out the last green space in the center of the city, Gezi Park in Taksim Square, and to replace it with a mall designed like an Ottoman-era barracks. Mr. Erdogan, who once advised the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, to negotiate and compromise, sent out the police to clear the park.
“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.” The tactic backfired, leading to large protests and expressions of frustration at Mr. Erdogan’s rising authoritarian streak. Protesting environmentalists and conservationists were joined by radical leftists and street hooligans. Mr. Erdogan pulled back the police, but for days Taksim has been a sprawling and eclectic hub of grievance against him and his Justice and Development Party.
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. On Monday, he offered to talk on Wednesday — but then sent the police back to clear the square Tuesday.
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.” At first, the city center took on a movie-set feel: fireworks lit by protesters and nonlethal sound bombs set off by the police punctuated the chants of “Istanbul is ours! Taksim is ours!”
“When I speak against all that, they say, ‘The prime minister speaks very harshly.’ If you call this harsh, sorry. Tayyip Erdogan never changes.” For hours, the police would advance, and then retreat to rest, mingle with onlookers, smoke cigarettes or buy snacks from street vendors. The chaos was contained to pockets of the square, and short clashes followed intervals of calm, allowing onlookers and tourists to gather in relatively safe spots and watch the action unfurl, and then run down side streets when the gas became too thick.
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. By night, though, the scenes turned more violent, as the police moved to decisively clear the square — and some demonstrators fought back while others called for peaceful civil disobedience.
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. For Mr. Erdogan, the smoldering violence represents his worst political crisis since coming to power a decade ago. It also highlights the kind of class politics that have divided society, with his conservative religious followers strongly supporting his position. But his political base — a majority — has not protected the economy, which is suffering as the currency loses value and the cost of borrowing rises.
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. Analysts now worry that Mr. Erdogan, instead of finding a way out of the crisis, has only made it worse by hardening divisions among his constituents, and by digging in. Three people have been killed and at least 4,947 injured in the violence.
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 leaders may be searching for a way out of the deadlock,” wrote Melih Asik, a columnist in Milliyet, a centrist newspaper. “However, has inciting one half of the people against the other half ever been a remedy for overcoming such a crisis? If limitless anger does not give way to common sense, Turkey will have a very difficult job ahead.”
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. Mr. Erdogan, in rally after rally over the weekend, sought to energize the conservative masses who propelled him to power by invoking his personal history as an Islamist leader opposed to the old secular state and its undemocratic nature. His supporters represent a social class that was previously marginalized, and Mr. Erdogan has used his speeches to play on those class resentments.
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 potato-head bloke, itching his belly — this was how they regarded us for decades,” he said in a speech on Tuesday. “They think we do not know anything about politics, arts, theater, cinema, poetry, paintings, aesthetics, architecture.”
He added: “We don’t care about the square. If they come into the park that is when we will stand up.” Though he was democratically elected, unlike the Arab leaders he has counseled, commentators say he appears to have appropriated several tactics of those ousted by popular uprisings. In addition to sending in the police, he has blamed foreigners for stoking the unrest — a refrain also heard in Cairo and Damascus, Syria.
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. “Those who attempt to sink the bourse, you will collapse,” Mr. Erdogan said at one of several speeches he gave on Sunday. “If we catch your speculation, we will choke you. No matter who you are, we will choke you.”
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. But there is a danger, analysts say, because even with a strong majority as his base, he is vulnerable if the crisis drags on. Several columnists for Zaman, a pro-Islamist newspaper linked to Fethullah Gulen, an important spiritual leader in Turkey who is exiled in the United States, have become critical of Mr. Erdogan’s intimidation of the news media and his pursuit of a powerful presidential system.
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.” The continuing crisis that has engulfed Mr. Erdogan’s government and threatened to tarnish the image of Turkey as a rising power that he has helped create played out in other places simultaneously on 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.
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. Mr. Erdogan, offering no hint of compromise, called the protest movement “an uprising against the democratic administration.” He described the banners of leftist groups that had decorated the square as those of “terrorist organizations.”
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. “When I speak against all that, they say, ‘The prime minister speaks very harshly.’ If you call this harsh, sorry, Tayyip Erdogan never changes.”
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. The White House called Tuesday for dialogue to resolve differences between the government, a close ally of the United States, and the protesters.
“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.” “We continue to follow events in Turkey with concern, and our interest remains supporting freedom of expression and assembly, including the right to peaceful protest,” a White House spokeswoman said in a statement.
When the day began it appeared that the government had a cautious strategy aimed at reining in the protests by clearing the square, but leaving the demonstrators in the park. A Twitter message from the provincial governor, Huseyin Avni Mutlu, said, “This morning you are in the safe hands of your police brothers.”
But there was so much distrust in the park that demonstrators began girding for an attack. Some scribbled their blood types on their arms in ink, in case they needed emergency care. Doctors in a makeshift medical tent were ready to tend to those suffering the effects of tear gas.
On Tuesday night, the police began firing tear gas in the park, where many demonstrators were as critical of the protest violence as of the police. “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. “We will not participate in this violence.”