TURKEY: Protesters detained in capital Ankara as Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan meets opponents in an attempt to end two weeks of anti-government demonstrations

Record ID: 860852

  • Title: TURKEY: Protesters detained in capital Ankara as Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan meets opponents in an attempt to end two weeks of anti-government demonstrations
  • Date: 13th June 2013
  • Summary: ANKARA, TURKEY (JUNE 13, 2013) (REUTERS) (NIGHTSHOTS) PROTESTERS CHANTING PROTESTERS MARCHING PROTESTERS BLOCKING ROAD RIOT POLICE LINING UP POLICE MARCHING TO PROTESTERS PROTESTERS DEMONSTRATING POLICE FIRING PERCUSSION GRENADES POLICE DETAINING PROTESTERS FROM A COFFEE SHOP VARIOUS OF DETENTIONS
  • Embargoed: 28th June 2013 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Turkey
  • City:
  • Country: Turkey
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA5FDDKG2QMZ62SJFBTUDX0RV7P
  • Aspect Ratio:
  • Story Text: Turkish police detained protesters blocking roads in Turkish capital Ankara on Thursday (June 13) as Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan held talks with representatives of protesters in a bid to end the two-week anti-government demonstrations.
    Erdogan met a delegation mostly made up of actors and artists but also including two members of the umbrella protest group Taksim Solidarity, hours after saying his patience had run out and warning protesters occupying Gezi Park to leave.
    Separately, Istanbul Governor Huseyin Avni Mutlu offered to meet demonstrators from Taksim Square, the epicentre of the protests, at a cafe by the Bosphorus waterway to discuss their demands that the government abandon plans to build a replica Ottoman-era barracks on the park, which adjoins Taksim.
    A police crackdown on the park nearly two weeks ago triggered an unprecedented wave of protest against Erdogan and his AK Party - an association of centrists and conservative religious elements - drawing in secularists, nationalists, professionals, unionists and students.
    Erdogan has already discussed the plans to build over the park with various people who support the protesters, but had refused until Thursday to meet with the Taksim Solidarity group at the heart of the campaign to protect it.
    Late on Thursday, he appeared to suggest that hundreds of protesters, camped out in a ramshackle settlement of tents in Gezi Park, could be forcibly evicted, although Mutlu said later there were no such immediate plans.
    Taksim, where police fired teargas and sent thousands scurrying into side streets two nights ago, was crowded but calm overnight. Some of the assembled masses chanted and danced, while others listened to a concert pianist who has taken up residence amid the protesters.
    Riot police guarded a statue of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founder of the modern Turkish republic, on one side of the square and the Ataturk Cultural Centre on the other, both of them targets for protesters to hang flags in recent days.
    Police fired teargas and water cannon day after day in cities including Ankara last week, while youths threw stones and petrol bombs in Turkey's worst unrest for years. Three people, including a policeman, died and about 5,000 people were injured, according to the Turkish Medical Association.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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