TURKEY: Turkish police clash with leftists groups, fire rubber bullets to disperse union workers

Record ID: 341161

  • Title: TURKEY: Turkish police clash with leftists groups, fire rubber bullets to disperse union workers
  • Date: 17th June 2013
  • Summary: ISTANBUL, TURKEY (JUNE 17, 2013) (REUTERS) PROTESTERS GATHERING AND CHANTING RIOT POLICE BLOCKING ROAD POLICE WEARING HELMET PROTESTERS CHANTING POLICE CHASING PROTESTERS RUNNING POLICE FIRING RUBBER BULLETS PROTESTERS RUNNING POLICE CHASING PANGALTI, ISTANBUL, TURKEY (JUNE 17, 2013) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF UNION WORKERS MARCHING AND CHANTING POLICE BACKED BY WATER CANNON
  • Embargoed: 2nd July 2013 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Turkey
  • Country: Turkey
  • Topics: Crime,Economic News,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA6105V8GZJV1OC3O4VVCSRU3JX
  • Story Text: Several hundred striking union workers and leftist groups marched in Istanbul on Monday (June 17) in sympathy with the anti government protests as riot police fired rubber bullets to disperse the crowd.
    Police prevented them entering Taksim Square, the focus of the unrest, which flared up again at the weekend with some of the fiercest clashes so far when police fired teargas and water cannon to clear thousands of people, some of them throwing stones, from the square.
    What began as a small demonstration by environmentalists upset at government plans to build on a public park adjoining Taksim has grown into a movement against Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan, who opponents say is overbearing and meddles too much in their personal lives.
    Police detained 441 people in connection with the clashes in Istanbul on Sunday and 56 in the capital Ankara. As violence across several cities entered its 18th day, at least four people have been killed and around 5,000 injured, according to the Turkish Medical Association.
    Erdogan sought to seize the initiative over the weekend by holding huge rallies in Istanbul and Ankara. Hundreds of thousands turned up to support a leader who has won three successive elections, and whom they considered unfairly under siege.
    The blunt-talking 59-year-old said the rallies were to kick off campaigning for local elections next year and not related to the unrest, but they were widely seen as a show of strength.
    A defiant Erdogan told a sea of flag-waving supporters in Istanbul on Sunday that the unrest had been manipulated by "terrorists" and dismissed suggestions that he was behaving like a dictator, a constant refrain from protesters on the streets.
    Just a few kilometres away, police fought running battles with protesters in clashes that lasted well into the evening.
    The stark contrast between events in different parts of Istanbul highlighted how the protests have polarised Turkey, its conservative religious heartland largely backing Erdogan while Western-facing liberals swell the ranks of the protesters.
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