Turkey: A Long and Eventful Week in Istanbul. It has been a long and eventful week in Istanbul.
It will be hard for many who were there to forget the scenes reminiscent of war on the streets around Taksim Square and Gezi Park, the site of the protests, on Tuesday evening and into the night. After apparently conciliatory tweets from Istanbul governor Hüseyin Avni Mutlu to the young protesters occupying Gezi Park just a day earlier, and following indications that the prime minister was ready to sit down to talks over the protests on Wednesday, both leaders made an astonishing about-face. Apparently finding no contradiction with their earlier words, they authorized a decision for riot police to enter Taksim Square on the pretext of clearing “the banners and flags of illegal organizations” at 7 in the morning on June 11. The Turkish Medical Association has to date recorded four deaths. While the scenes of Tuesday remain vivid, by Friday morning we reached a new point.
‘If thousands of people injured is no political crisis in Turkey, what it is?’ — RT Op-Edge. Afshin Rattansi is a journalist, author of “The Dream of the Decade – the London Novels” and an RT Contributor. He can be reached at afshinrattansi@hotmail.com. Published time: June 14, 2013 14:51 An anti-government protester waves a Turkish flag with a poster of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founder of modern Turkey, at Taksim Gezi park in Istanbul on June 13, 2013. (AFP Photo / Ozan Kose) It’s hypocritical on the part as Turkish authorities to deny the political crisis in the country, with even Erdogan’s European allies criticizing for harsh measures at Taskim square, says RT contributor Afshin Rattansi. RT: We've just heard from a Turkish MP, she denies this is a political crisis.
Afshin Rattansi: Well, if thousands of people injured, people dead on the streets of Taskim Square, running that square, isn’t a political crisis, I’m not sure what is. RT: What’s the nub of these demonstrations? Erdoğan issues stark 'final warning' to Turkey's Gezi Park protesters. Turkey's prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, delivered a stark "final warning" on Thursday to thousands of defiant protesters still camped out in Istanbul's Gezi park, demanding that they end their occupation.
Describing the protesters as troublemakers, Erdoğan said the government had reached the "end of its patience" over the continuing demonstrations against his leadership, in which five people have been killed since 31 May. Erdoğan had earlier issued a 24-hour deadline to clear Taksim Square and Gezi park. Erdoğan spoke as the latest person to die in the demonstrations was named as 26-year-old Ethem Sarısülük, who had been on life support for days. Why Turkey protests are a good thing. By Fareed Zakaria "Another year, another country, another square," wrote the British columnist Timothy Garton Ash in the Globe and Mail this week.
He was referring, of course, to the protests in Istanbul’s Taksim Square, which many have compared to earlier protests in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, or Tehran's Azadi Square, or Moscow’s Red Square, or Kiev's Independence Square. BUSINESS - Twitter under microscope amid ‘Gezi Park probe’ Turkey government freezes Gezi Park project until ruling. 15 June 2013Last updated at 02:45 ET.
Turkey government freezes Gezi Park project until ruling. Last Minute: Taksim Solidarity is going to PM’s office for a meeting. Urgent announcement from Taksim Solidarity. The Surprising History and Science of Tear Gas. On Wednesday, hundreds of Turkish riot police forced thousands of protestors out of Taksim Square in Istanbul, by showering them with tear gas and blasting them with water cannons. The square has been ground zero for protests that started on May 31 with the goal to stop developers from cutting down trees—but the unrest has since spread to broader issues and at least 78 other Turkish cities, according to news reports. Protesters have been calling for an end to the leadership of Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, citing what they call increasingly authoritarian measures, including restrictions on alcohol sales, separation of genders in schools, and other issues. The Turkish Human Rights Foundation has reported that four people were killed in protests Tuesday and that nearly 5,000 people have been treated for injuries, including widespread exposure to tear gas.
Jordt had been exposed to tear gas himself in the 1980s, when he was a student in Germany and attended a protest against nuclear waste. Erdogan in 'final' protest warning. 13 June 2013Last updated at 13:55 ET Quentin Sommerville reports on the mood in Gezi Park Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has issued a "final warning" to protesters to leave Gezi Park in central Istanbul.
"Our patience is at an end. I am making my warning for the last time," he said. The west still doesn't get what the Turkish uprisings are about. A lot has been written over the past week and a half by various social scientists, political analysts and journalists on what the uprising in Turkey is about.
I want to contribute by commenting on what it's not. To start with the most obvious and overstated point, it's not just about a dozen sycamore trees. What started with a relatively small number of concerned activists and citizens organising a sit-in to avoid the destruction of the Gezi Park in the face of the government's attempt to build a replica of an army barracks on the park site as part of an urban redevelopment project suddenly evolved into a spontaneous anti-government demonstration of a massive scale when the police resorted to extremely brutal force to dispel the few peaceful protesters.
From Trafalgar to Taksim, the politics of the square puts the wind up power. Illustration by Belle Mellor Why does power hate a city square?
A square fields no army, commands no votes, has nowhere to go. It is just a space. Yet it is space that invites occupation, an occupation hostile to power. Turkey protests: Uneasy calm in Istanbul's Taksim Square. 12 June 2013Last updated at 10:57 ET Debris is strewn across Taksim Square There is an uneasy calm in central Istanbul after a night of clashes which saw Turkish riot police disperse anti-government demonstrators.
In french.