Turkey Anti-Gov’t Protests Rage, Deaths Reported, Thousands in Custody

Anti-government protests raged in Turkey on Tuesday as one of the main trade union confederations joined demonstrations, as media reported there were people killed during clashes with police.

Turkey’s Confederation of Public Workers’ Unions (KESK) has called a two-day strike from Tuesday to protest against the police crackdown on demonstrators.
“The state terror implemented against entirely peaceful protests is continuing in a way that threatens civilians’ life safety,” the KESK said Monday in a statement on its website.

The police crackdown showed the government’s “enmity to democracy”, it said.
The left-leaning confederation has some 240,000 members in 11 unions and the action will likely affect schools, universities and public offices across the country.

Turkish police and anti-government protesters clashed again in Istanbul early Tuesday, as the reported death toll from nationwide protests rose to at least two.
Riot police fired tear gas at protestors who burned cars, hurled stones and bellowed angry slogans into the early hours. Similar scenes played out in the capital Ankara.

A medics’ union earlier Monday said a man had been killed when a car ploughed into protestors in Istanbul on Sunday.
And early Tuesday, private television station NTV reported that a 22-year-old man had died after being shot in the head in Hatay province, in the south of the country.
Earlier, as white fumes hung in the air in surrounding streets, thousands of other protestors gathered on Taksim Square, the symbolic heart of the protests.
“Tayyip, resign!” they yelled, referring to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, as they were waving red flags and banners.

Erdogan Rejects Talks about “Turkish Spring”
For his part, Erdogan, who had already left on a trip to Morocco, had insisted on Monday the situation was calming down.

He rejected talk of a “Turkish Spring” uprising by Turks who accuse him of trying to impose Islamic reforms on the secular state.
The clashes, which have rocked scores of cities across Turkey, have now entered a fifth day.

Erdogan has blamed the protests on “extremists” and “dissidents” among his opponents and on Monday insisted the situation was calming down.
“The Republican People’s Party and other dissidents have a hand in these events,” he said, referring to the main Turkish opposition.

The wave of protests began on Friday after police cracked down on a peaceful protest in Istanbul against plans to build over Gezi Park, a rare green spot adjoining Taksim Square.

That generated wider anti-government protests in Istanbul, Ankara and dozens of other cities.
Rights groups and doctors said more than a thousand people had been injured in clashes in Istanbul and 700 in Ankara.