ISTANBUL: Turkish riot police fired water cannon to clear thousands of protesters from Istanbul’s Taksim Square yesterday, the first such confrontation there in nearly a week, even as Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told thousands of supporters in the Black Sea city of Samsun that weeks of often violent protests against his government had played into the hands of Turkey’s enemies.
Hundreds of riot police backed up by water cannon trucks moved in on several thousand protesters chanting for Erdogan’s dismissal. “This is but a start, the battle continues!” the protesters yelled, throwing red carnations. “It is by resisting that we will prevail!”
The crowd quickly scattered, and water cannon trucks parked at several entry points to Taksim to prevent people from regrouping. The protesters had gathered a week after police evicted thousands of people from the adjacent Gezi Park, the epicentre of nationwide demonstrations that had shaken Turkey for much of June and presented Erdogan and his Islamic-rooted government with the biggest challenge of their decade-long rule.
Following the eviction, the protests that had infuriated Erdogan and earned Turkey harsh criticism from the West had fizzled out as the premier claimed victory over “traitors”.
The crisis began when a small campaign to save Gezi Park’s 600 trees from being razed in a redevelopment project was met with a brutal police response on May 31. The violence sparked widespread anger and snowballed into mass demonstrations against Erdogan, seen as increasingly authoritarian, before culminating in another crackdown on Gezi Park. Four people have been killed and nearly 8,000 injured in the turmoil, according to the Turkish Medical Association.
In Samsun, a crowd of some 15,000 of Erdogan’s AK Party faithful cheered and waved Turkish flags as he called on the public to give their answer to protests at the ballot box when Turkey holds municipal elections next March.
The rally in the party stronghold was the fourth in a series of mass meetings which Erdogan has called since demonstrations began at the start of June.
The blunt-talking 59-year-old said opponents both within Turkey and abroad had orchestrated the demonstrations, saying an “interest rate lobby” of speculators in financial markets had benefited from the unrest.
“Who won from these three weeks of protests? The interest rate lobby, Turkey’s enemies,” Erdogan said from a stage emblazoned with his portrait and a slogan calling for his supporters to “thwart the big game” played out against Turkey.
“Who lost from these protests? Turkey’s economy, even if to a small extent, tourism lost. They overshadowed and stained Turkey’s image and international power,” he said.
In a speech appealing to his conservative grassroots support, Erdogan made fresh accusations that those involved in the protests in Turkey’s main western cities were disrespectful towards Islam, the religion of the vast majority of Turkey.
“Let them go into mosques in their shoes, let them raise their hand to our head-scarved girls. One prayer from our people is enough to frustrate their plans,” Erdogan said, before tossing red carnations to the crowd after his speech.
The protests have underlined divisions in Turkish society between religious conservatives who form the bedrock of Erdogan’s support, and more liberal Turks who have swelled the ranks of peaceful demonstrators.
Erdogan, who won his third consecutive election in 2011 with 50 percent support, has been riled by the open show of dissent, and sees himself as a champion of democratic reform.
During his 10-year rule, which has seen him unchallenged on the political stage, he has enacted reforms that include curbing powers of an army that toppled four governments in four decades and pursuing an end to 30 years of Kurdish rebellion.
But he brooks little dissent. Hundreds of military officers have been jailed on charges of plotting a coup against Erdogan. A court near Istanbul said on Friday that it will announce on August 5 its verdict on nearly 300 defendants, including academics, journalists and politicians, accused of separate plots to overthrow the government.
But among the large section of Turkey’s 76 million people who do not back him, Erdogan is viewed as increasingly authoritarian and too quick to meddle in their private lives. Recent restrictions on the sale of alcohol have fuelled their suspicions that he has a creeping Islamist agenda.
Today, Erdogan will address a rally in the eastern city of Erzurum, also an AK Party stronghold.
Reuters/AFP
