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Turkish Riot Police Storm Taksim Square, Clash with Protesters

Turkish Riot Police Storm Taksim Square, Clash with Protesters
folder_openTurkey access_time10 years ago
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Local Editor

Hundreds of Turkish riot police entered Istanbul's Taksim Square on Tuesday, firing water cannon and teargas to scatter small numbers of protesters involved in demonstrations against plans to redevelop a park there.


Turkish Riot Police Storm Taksim Square, Clash with ProtestersPolice removed protesters' banners which had been hung from a building overlooking the square and the local governor said the police had no intention of breaking up the protest in the adjoining Gezi Park.

"Our aim is to remove the signs and pictures on Ataturk statue and the Ataturk Cultural Centre. We have no other aim," Istanbul Governor Huseyin Avni Mutlu wrote on Twitter. "Gezi Park and Taksim will not be touched."

Hundreds of protesters with gas marks and plastic building site helmets gathered on steps leading from the square to the park, while police stationed water cannon vehicles around the square.

Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has agreed to meet leaders of the movement whose peaceful protests in Istanbul spiraled into a wave of demonstrations against his government in which three people have been killed and about 5,000 hurt.

Erdogan has repeatedly dismissed the protesters as "capulcular", or riff-raff. But Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc said on Monday leaders of the Gezi Park Platform group had asked to meet him in an effort to end the unrest.

"Our intention is to remove the signs and banners at the site. We have no other goal," said Istanbul governor Huseyin Avni Mutlu on Twitter.

"We will not touch Gezi Park and Taksim, we will absolutely not touch you," he added, urging demonstrators to stay away from troublemakers.
Burak Arat, 24, said he was sleeping in Gezi Park when police moved in nearby. "We will fight. We want freedom. We are freedom fighters," the tourism student told Agence France Presse as he made his way to the square where burst of tear gas were ringing out.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team

 

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