Saturday, June 01, 2013

Turkey protests spread as Istanbul sit-in turns violent...

Anti-government demonstrators took to the streets in cities across Turkey after a sit-in at a park in Istanbul over plans for a construction project turned violent on Friday, with police using tear gas and water cannon to break up protesters.

Turkish riot police used tear gas and water cannon Friday to end a peaceful sit-in by hundreds of people trying to prevent trees from being uprooted in an Istanbul park. The dawn raid ignited a furious anti-government protest that took over the city’s main square and spread to other cities.

In a victory for the protesters, an Istanbul court later ordered the temporary suspension of the project to uproot the trees. But demonstrators around the country kept up protests denouncing what they called a heavy-handed crackdown and a government seen as displaying increasingly authoritarian tendencies.

Police took action on the fourth day of the sit-in against a government plan to revamp Taksim square. Officers clashed with angry demonstrators in surrounding areas, firing tear gas canisters and pushing people back with water cannon. A cloud of smoke from the gas filled the square and scattered protests continued into the night. Full story...

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