TURKEY: Protesters say they will not give up their demands after Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan rejected stopping park redevelopment

Record ID: 217648

  • Title: TURKEY: Protesters say they will not give up their demands after Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan rejected stopping park redevelopment
  • Date: 6th June 2013
  • Summary: ISTANBUL, TURKEY (JUNE 6, 2013) (REUTERS) PEOPLE IN TAKSIM SQUARE PROTESTERS DANCING IN SQUARE WIDE OF SQUARE / STATUE IN THE SQUARE VARIOUS OF PROTESTER HOLDING FLAG NEXT TO STATUE (SOUNDBITE) (English) ISTANBUL RESIDENT SUPPORTING THE PROTESTS, FEZA, SAYING: "It has to be, it has to stay as a park. And the construction are totally, so heavily, they didn't ask anything
  • Embargoed: 21st June 2013 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Turkey
  • Country: Turkey
  • Topics: Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA9NU4TJQYLNCPBGKJUDZXB1T9D
  • Story Text: Defiant protesters in Istanbul said on Thursday (June 6) they would not give up the park at the centre of days of unrest after Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan announced plans for its redevelopment would go ahead.
    Speaking in a news conference in Tunisia the Turkish prime minister said he had rejected changing the plans for one of central Istanbul's few green spaces. The plans include knocking down an opera house and building a mosque.
    In Taksim Square, Gezi park supporters were disappointed and defiant.

    "It has to stay as a park. And the construction are totally, so heavily, they didn't ask anything to the citizens and we don't have any democracy. You know. They were accusing soldiers because they didn't have any democracy for the Islamic section, and I think for a long time we don't have any democracy for the democratic part. The other half of the country," said Feza, a supporter of the demonstrators who are trying to protect the park.
    Protester Elif said they would not give up.

    "I think he is kidding because we are not going to give up. We always fight for these trees but he's (Erdogan) saying always it's just one or two trees. This is not about just trees. This is about our souls. We don't want any mall. We want our trees, we want our parks, we want our Taksim Square. So I think he is kidding because he can't get what he wants anymore," said Elif.
    At the same time, around 60 protesters gathered in front of the U.S. embassy in Ankara to protest their plan to buy a parcel of land from Ataturk Forest Farm.
    Protesters left a black wreath outside the building and asked the authorities to reconsider their plan.

    "Ataturk forest is a very big forestal area. The government is both building there and cutting down trees and now the U.S. embassy wants to buy a parcel of land at the same spot. We are here to ask them to abandon their plans," one of the protesters, Tezcan Karakuscan, said.
    Ataturk Forest Farm was established by Ataturk, founder of modern Turkey, in 1925 as a private farm and he donated the farm to the Turkish state in 1937. An expansive recreational farming area, the land houses a zoo, green houses, agricultural farms, greenhouses and unused estate.
    The U.S. has long-standing plans to move its embassy building in Ankara. Turkish and U.S. officials came to an agreement for the sale and a protocol was due to be signed in the coming weeks, Turkish media reported.
    Erdogan returns to Turkey later on Thursday to face demands he apologise for a police crackdown on the six days of protests in which three people have been killed and more than 4,000 injured in a dozen cities, and to sack those who ordered it.
    What began as a campaign against the redevelopment of a leafy Istanbul park has grown into an unprecedented show of defiance against the perceived authoritarianism of Erdogan and his Islamist-rooted AK Party.
    Police backed by armoured vehicles have clashed with the protesters night after night, while thousands have massed peacefully in recent days on Taksim Square, where the demonstrations first began.
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