Turkish political parties condemn Egypt military coup in joint statement

4 July 2013 /TODAYSZAMAN.COM, İSTANBUL

A statement from Parliament's Human Rights Commission on Thursday was signed by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party), main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), opposition Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and opposition Peace and Democracy Party (BDP).

“The ruling power that was usurped by unauthorized powers should be given back to the [Egyptian] people. All democratic individuals and institutions across the world should stand against such moves, which have the potential for human rights violations,” the statement said.

The Egyptian armed forces ousted Morsi, Egypt's first democratically elected president, on Wednesday after just a year in power, installing a temporary civilian government, suspending the constitution and calling for new elections. President Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood blasted the action as a "full coup" by the military.

The Turkish political parties' statement highlighted that executions, torture, lengthy detentions, unjust arrests and many other human rights violations take place during times of coups, adding that elected governments in democracies can only be changed in accordance with the law."

"All interventions, apart from this, are against democracy, the law and human rights," the statement said, noting that the coup in Egypt is just one of dozens of coups around the world that destroyed democracy, supremacy of law and human rights.

Millions of anti-Morsi protesters around the country erupted in celebration after the televised announcement by the army chief on Wednesday evening. Fireworks burst over crowds in Cairo's Tahrir Square, where men and women danced, shouting "God is great" and "Long live Egypt."

CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu earlier condemned the Egyptian military's overthrow of elected President Morsi and said he expects the swift return of democracy to the country.

“Military coups are unacceptable. I hope democracy will return to the country as soon as possible,” he said.

Kılıçdaroğlu's remarks came during a meeting with administrators and businessmen from the Middle East Trade and Industry Center (OSTİM) in Ankara on Thursday morning.

“We see that those who think democracy is only composed of ballot boxes are mistaken. There is something called pluralism. Those who are ruling the country need to lend an ear to everyone's demands.

“Remaining deaf to their demands and saying things like ‘I received the majority of the vote, I can do anything,' is not valid in today's world. Military coups are never acceptable,” he said.

When asked about the effects of the military coup in Egypt on Turkey, Kılıçdaroğlu said he believes Turkish democracy is more advanced and that no segment of the public would favor a coup in Turkey.

He said the basic problem in Turkey is the patronizing attitude of the government and accused Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of dividing the country into camps.

Quarrel in Parliament

In the meantime, there were heated moments in Parliament on Wednesday when CHP deputy Kamer Genç made remarks warning Prime Minister Erdoğan of facing the same fate as Morsi.

“Do you think, Erdoğan, that the 5,000 policemen you employed will protect you? You have seen what happened to Morsi. There were also policemen around him. … There are some realities in this country that you cannot comprehend,” Genç said.

Genç's remarks drew harsh reactions from members of Parliament. Deputy Parliament Speaker Sadık Yakut said he condemned Genç for making a call for a military coup.

AK Party deputy group chairman Mustafa Elitaş also criticized Genç, saying that his pro-coup remarks do not befit him as a member of the party that established the Turkish Republic.

“If the CHP claims that it is not a party that has the habit of coming to power after military coups, it should have prevented its deputy from speaking this way. But it seems that they are in agreement,” Elitaş said.

Genç's remarks also drew negative reactions from the ranks of his party. CHP deputy group chairman Engin Altay said the CHP has been against coups throughout its political life.

Source: Today's Zaman.
Link: http://www.todayszaman.com/news-319962-turkish-political-parties-condemn-egypt-military-coup-in-joint-statement.html.

Court annuls controversial Istanbul project

July 04, 2013

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — A lawyer says an Istanbul court has annulled a government-backed redevelopment project that ignited widespread protests against Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's rule last month.

However, lawyer Can Atalay said Thursday that the court's June decision is not final and is expected to be appealed at a higher administrative court. Atalay filed the lawsuit against the plans on behalf of a chamber of architects.

The demonstrations were sparked May 31 by a brutal police crackdown on an environmental sit-in against plans to build a replica Ottoman-era barracks at a park next to Istanbul's landmark Taksim Square and morphed into an unprecedented challenge against Erdogan's Islamic-rooted government.

In a concession to protesters, Erdogan promise to suspend redevelopment plans pending court rulings and a referendum.

Turkey signs Arms Trade Treaty

July 3, 2013

ANKARA, Turkey, July 3 (UPI) -- The Turkish Foreign Ministry said Wednesday it expected its international counterparts to sign onto the United Nations' Arms Trade Treaty.

The U.N. General Assembly approved the international treaty on the global arms trade in April. The measure, which followed several years of diplomatic maneuvering, is aimed at preventing the spread of weapons.

The Turkish Foreign Minister said in a statement Wednesday its signature was added to the treaty by Turkish Ambassador to the United Nations Halit Cevik.

"For a speedy entry into force and eventual universalization, we expect all states to sign the treaty and complete their national ratification procedures as soon as possible," the ministry said in a statement.

More than 60 countries formally signed the treaty. It bans governments from transferring conventional weapons to other countries known to be engaged in war crimes or crimes against humanity.

The United States wasn't among those signing the treaty. White House spokesman Jay Carney said the government would likely join the measure later this year. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry expressed his support for the measure though the White House said there were minor issues stemming from the treaty's translation.

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/Special/2013/07/03/Turkey-signs-Arms-Trade-Treaty/UPI-39461372866138/.

Amid protests in Turkey, an opportunity for Erdogan

25 June 2013
by S. Ayse Kadayifci-Orellana

Washington, DC – What started as a small environmental protest at Gezi Park in Istanbul quickly escalated into nationwide anti-government demonstrations that pulled together artists, feminists, soccer clubs, Kemalist-secularists and Kurds after riot police cracked down on the protesters. Undeterred by the harsh response of the government, demonstrators resorted to non-violent civil disobedience using humor, music and art to protest the government.

Turkey, a secular and democratic state currently led by an Islamist party, has been applauded as a model for Muslim-majority countries especially since the Arab Spring uprisings. If the Turkish government passes this critical test, Turkey will emerge a stronger democracy and continue to be an inspiration in the region. The Turkish government therefore has an opportunity to set a critical example.

As events in Turkey affirm, repression tactics such as threats, arrests, the deployment of riot police, use of gas bombs, rubber bullets and water cannons are combative tactics that escalate conflict rather than subdue protesters. This escalation is marked by an increase in the number of groups and individuals pulled into the conflict and the formation of new alliances among them.

These alliances include groups and individuals with different interests, goals and motivations that might even appear contradictory. Nationalists, for example, are critical of government’s engagement with Kurdish groups while they are united with Kurds against police brutality.

For their part, many young people fear growing government intervention in their lives, while Kemalist-secularists worry about religion’s role in state affairs. In response, supporters of Prime Minister Erdogan organized demonstrations to show solidarity with the government, criticizing the protesters for undermining economic stability and security in the process.

Fears, grievances and perceptions of injustice are linked to motivations and ultimately become integral to a group’s identity. Compromise is perceived as a threat to identity and becomes unacceptable. For example, Kemalist-secular groups see alcohol regulations as an indicator that the government wants to impose religious conduct on the country and thus as a threat to its secular identity. Parties become increasingly polarized into camps such as pro-government and anti-government ones, sharply delineating differences. Such dynamics increase the risk of further conflict.

Decreasing tensions and moving toward reconciliation after such events involve a process that takes time, patience and careful planning. In this process, a state’s response to protesters plays a particularly important role because of the asymmetric power dynamics. An important aspect of this process is rebuilding trust between the parties and transforming hostile relations into cooperative ones.

The first step in this process involves avoiding the disproportionate use of force. A close second requires separating nonviolent protesters from violent groups and providing immunity to the former.

Equally important for rebuilding trust and stabilizing the situation is the transformation of negative perceptions and attitudes, such as ones that regard the government as despotic or protesters as vandals. It is necessary to control rumors and false information, like when protesters who took shelter in a mosque were said to have consumed alcoholic beverages while there, or that the deputy minister had resigned. This can be achieved by creating rumor control mechanisms like setting up independent sources to verify or debunk rumors.

Avoiding hostile or provocative statements and adopting language that reflects respect and understanding, while emphasizing common identities like the national identity, or shared goals and concerns such as economic stability, regional security and respect for personal freedoms, can help transform negative attitudes.

Establishing direct communication and dialogue mechanisms, such as forming a dialogue committee, is another important strategy to defuse the tension. However this can be challenging, especially in mass protests where various groups with different interests, motivations and goals commingle. Some groups may disagree or refuse to participate in the dialogue process. Thus it is important for the state to reach out to different groups separately and listen to their needs and concerns respectfully and empathetically. During these discussions, recognizing the legitimacy of grievances, understanding the underlying interests and needs as well as developing mutually acceptable solutions are important.

Recognizing mistakes, demonstrating a willingness to work with the protesters to correct such mistakes and jointly developing a road map for implementation within a given timetable can also defuse tensions and help restore trust.

The Gezi Park events will continue to test Turkish democracy in the coming weeks. Restoring peace and trust will take time and patience. Critical in the process will be the Turkish government’s willingness to listen to the protesters’ concerns and needs, its readiness to work with them to find mutually acceptable solutions to their concerns and its commitment to uphold democratic values and human rights such as the right to peaceful protest, freedom of expression and assembly.

Source: Common Ground.
Link: http://www.commongroundnews.org/article.php?id=33024&lan=en&sp=0.

Turkish PM lashes out at protesters

June 25, 2013

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkish police on Tuesday detained at least 20 people allegedly involved in violent protests, as the country's prime minister continued to lash out at protesters — and a BBC journalist — he claimed were part of a conspiracy to harm Turkey.

Meanwhile, hundreds of protesters marched to Istanbul's central Taksim square, this time to denounce a court decision that — pending trial — freed police officer accused of killing a demonstrator during the anti-government protests that have swept the country since May 31. Police surrounded the square, blocking their access.

At least three demonstrators and a police officer were killed in the protests that began in Istanbul following a heavy-handed police clampdown on peaceful activists. They quickly turned into widespread expression of discontent with what critics have said is Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's increasingly authoritarian way of governing.

Erdogan, who came to power a decade ago denies the accusation, and frequently points at elections in 2011 that returned his party to power for a third successive term with 50 percent of the vote. One of the protesters was killed by a bullet fired by police during a demonstration in Ankara on June 1. A court on Monday released the officer from custody pending trial, on the grounds that the shooting may have been accidental. But some see the release as proof that Turkish authorities are too lenient toward police.

The state-run Anadolu Agency said police searched some 30 addresses in the capital, Ankara, and rounded up 20 people with alleged links to "terror" groups and suspected of "attacking police and the environment" during the protests.

Erdogan holds unspecified foreign forces, bankers and media outlets responsible for the protests that had largely subsided until the court freed the police officer. In an address to members of his Islamic-rooted party in Parliament, Erdogan reiterated that the protests were orchestrated by forces wanting to prevent Turkey's rise.

He repeated his claim that the same conspiracy was at work in Brazil, saying both countries had paid off debts to the International Monetary Fund. Mass rallies in Brazil were set off this month by a 10-cent hike in bus and subway fares in Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and elsewhere. The protests soon moved beyond that issue to tap into widespread frustration in the South American nation over a range of issues, including high taxes and woeful public services.

"From the start, some people, internally and externally, have tried to portray the protests as totally innocent and just, and the police of having systematically used force," Erdogan said. "Certain media in Turkey were lead provocateurs. The foreign media took part in these operations."

He targeted a Turkish BBC reporter who tweeted about a forum held by protesters, where participants reportedly suggested a six-month boycott of goods that they said would help slow down the economy. Without mentioning her by name, Erdogan accused Selin Girit of being "part of a conspiracy against her own country."

"Their aim is to prevent democracy, to harm Turkey's economy, to hit tourism," Erdogan said. Two days earlier, Ankara's mayor had accused Girit of being a British government agent and started a campaign on Twitter to apparently try to discredit her, prompting the BBC to issue a statement on Monday that said "it is unacceptable for our journalists to be directly targeted this way."

The BBC's global news director Peter Horrocks said "a large number of threatening messages" were sent to the reporter and he was concerned by the Turkish authorities' campaign to "discredit the BBC and intimidate its journalists."

On Monday, U.S. President Barack Obama spoke with Erdogan for the first time since the protests began. According to the White House, the two leaders discussed "the importance of nonviolence and of the rights to free expression" as well as the right of assembly and a free press.

Thorbjorn Jagland, the secretary-general of the 47-member Council of Europe, the continent's human rights watchdog which is based in Strasbourg, France, met with Erdogan in Ankara on Tuesday. Jagland told The Associated Press that he had brought up a number of human rights issues concerning the protests, including the firing of tear gas by police inside an Istanbul hotel where some protesters had taken refuge.

"The Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg has a number of judgments related with this," Jagland said. "For instance, the court has said that the use of tear gas inside a room is not acceptable and this happened at one hotel at least."

"It is important to convey that the authorities have responsibility to react in a way that doesn't trigger further and more violence," he said. In his speech Tuesday, Erdogan accused the hotel, Divan, and the Koc family that owns it — Turkey's richest family — of aiding criminals.

"Those who clashed with police went there. Its owners provided them with hospitality," Erdogan said. "You know it is against the law to harbor criminals."

AP writer Ezgi Akin in Ankara, and Umut Colak in Istanbul contributed.

Thousands in pro-Erdogan demo in Vienna

June 23, 2013

VIENNA (AP) — Several thousand people have taken part in a demonstration in Vienna in support of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Police said about 8,000 people participated in Sunday's pro-Erdogan demonstration in the Austrian capital— many waving red-and-white Turkish flags and some carrying banners with pictures of the Turkish leader.

About 600 people took part in a separate protest against a crackdown on anti-government demonstrations in Turkey. Protests in Turkey erupted three weeks ago after riot police brutally cracked down on environmental activists opposing plans to develop Istanbul's Gezi Park.

The demonstrations soon turned into expressions of discontent against Erdogan, who won a third term in office in 2011 elections. His critics say he is showing increasingly authoritarian tendencies. Austria has a sizeable Turkish community.

Turkish PM praises police 'heroism'

June 24, 2013

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey's prime minister has brushed off criticism by human rights groups and some European countries, insisting police officers have displayed "legendary heroism" in quelling weeks of anti-government protests.

Addressing police academy graduates at a ceremony in Ankara Monday, Recep Tayyip Erdogan said it was protesters — not police — that were violent, and praised the security forces for showing restraint.

The protests started off as a small environmental sit-in but quickly turned into a nationwide expression of discontent with Erdogan's 10-year rule. Erdogan has blamed the demonstrations on a foreign conspiracy to harm Turkey.

At least four people — three demonstrators and one police officer — have been killed. Human rights groups say police used excessive force on protesters.

Germany blocks Turkey's EU accession talks

June 20, 2013

LUXEMBOURG (AP) — Germany has blocked the next step in the European Union's membership talks with Turkey over Ankara's crackdown on anti-government protests, a diplomat from an EU nation said Thursday.

Berlin blocked the decision to open a new chapter in the long-running accession talks because "there are still open questions," said the diplomat. The decision comes as a blow to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Turkish government, which faces increasing international scrutiny over its crackdown on several weeks of protests in Istanbul and other cities.

Pushing ahead with the EU accession talks as scheduled next week would have required unanimous approval at a meeting of top diplomats representing the EU's 27 member nations in Brussels on Thursday. But Germany and another nation expressed reservations and blocked the move, the diplomat said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the closed-door meeting publicly. The diplomat declined to name the second nation.

Human rights groups have said that the protests in Turkey have left more than 5,000 people injured and more than 3,000 were detained, then released. The anti-government demonstrations were sparked by a police crackdown on environmental activists in Istanbul on May 31, but also criticized what some regard as Erdogan's authoritarian style of leadership.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel last week said she was "appalled" to see the Turkish security forces' "overly harsh" crackdown on the protests. NATO-member Turkey began EU accession negotiations in 2005, but has made little progress because of a dispute with Cyprus, an EU member, and opposition among some in Europe to admitting a populous Muslim nation into the bloc.

The session of EU talks to open next week was to focus on regional policies, not Turkey's protests. But some officials expressed concern that such talks could appear to endorse the crackdown on the demonstrations.

"I regret that the Turkish government did not react with dialogue and de-escalation to the protests but with an aggravation in rhetoric and actions," German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said in an interview published late week.

"It is therefore all the more urgent that we start a dialogue with Turkey as soon as possible on the question of fundamental rights, the rule of law and basic freedoms," he told daily Nuernberger Nachrichten in remarks confirmed by his party office.

The European Parliament last week sharply criticized what it called disproportionate force used by police against demonstrators, and lawmakers scrapped a visit to Turkey planned this week. Erdogan reacted angrily to the EU parliament's criticism, but officials from his Islamic-rooted Justice and Development party said Wednesday that Turkey still wants to join the bloc.

Germany itself remains a potential obstacle to Turkish EU membership. Merkel and her conservative party have long advocated a vaguely defined "privileged partnership" instead of full membership, though Westerwelle's Free Democrats — her junior coalition partners— are less skeptical.

"I think precisely now it is important to start negotiating with Turkey about exactly these issues — from freedom of the press to freedom to protest," he said.

Turkish police unleash water cannon on protests

June 22, 2013

ISTANBUL (AP) — Turkish police used water cannon to disperse thousands gathered in Istanbul's Taksim Square on Saturday to observe a memorial for four people killed during recent anti-government protests. The officers later fired tear gas and rubber bullets, and in some cases beat people with batons, to scatter demonstrators who regrouped in side streets.

The police move came as Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared that foreign-led conspirators he alleges are behind the anti-government movement in his country also are fomenting the recent unrest in Brazil.

The protests in Turkey erupted three weeks ago after riot police brutally cracked down on peaceful environmental activists who opposed plans to develop Gezi Park, which lies next to Taksim. The demonstrations soon turned into expressions of discontent with what critics say is Erdogan's increasingly authoritarian and meddlesome ways.

Erdogan, who took power a decade ago, denies he is authoritarian and, as evidence of his popularity, points to elections in 2011 that returned his party to power with 50 percent of the vote and gave him a third term in office.

On Saturday, demonstrators converged in Taksim, where they laid down carnations in remembrance of at least three protesters and a police officer killed in the rallies. For about two hours, protesters shouted anti-government slogans and demanded that Erdogan resign before police warned them to leave the square.

Some demonstrators tried to give carnations to the security forces watching over the square, shouting: "Police, don't betray your people." But after their warnings to disperse were ignored, police pushed back protesters with water cannon, even chasing stragglers down side streets and apparently blocking entrances to the square.

An Associated Press journalist said police drove back protesters into side streets off Taksim — including the main pedestrian shopping street Istiklal — and later fired several rounds of tear gas and rubber bullets to scatter the crowds who refused to disperse. There were no immediate reports of any injuries.

Dogan news agency footage showed two police officers hitting protesters with batons and kicking them as they forced their way through Istiklal street. A few demonstrators threw rocks at a police water cannon, while other protesters tried to calm them down and prevent them from attacking police.

Police in the capital, Ankara, also sprayed tear gas and pressurized water to break up hundreds of protesters who gathered in two neighborhoods, wanting to march to the city's main square, Dogan reported.

Last week, police had used water cannon as well as tear gas and rubber bullets to clear Taksim and end an occupation of Gezi Park by activists. But the demonstrations had largely subsided in Istanbul in recent days, with many protesters using a new, more passive approach of airing their grievances: standing motionless.

Erdogan has faced fierce international criticism for his government's crackdown on the protests, but he has defended his administration's actions as well as the tough police tactics. He also has blamed the protests on unspecified foreign forces, bankers and foreign and Turkish media outlets he says want to harm Turkish interests.

Brazil, meanwhile, has been hit by mass rallies set off this month by a 10-cent hike in bus and subway fares in Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and elsewhere. The protests soon moved beyond that issue to tap into widespread frustration in the South American nation over a range of issues, including high taxes and woeful public services.

During an address to tens of thousands of his backers in the Black Sea coastal city of Samsun, the latest stop in a series of rallies he has called to shore up his political support, Erdogan declared that Brazil was the target of the same conspirators he claims are trying to destabilize Turkey.

"The same game is now being played over Brazil," Erdogan said. "The symbols are the same, the posters are the same, Twitter, Facebook are the same, the international media is the same. They (the protests) are being led from the same center.

"They are doing their best to achieve in Brazil what they could not achieve in Turkey. It's the same game, the same trap, the same aim."

Fraser reported from Ankara, Turkey.

Germany-Turkey diplomatic dispute intensifies

June 21, 2013

BERLIN (AP) — A diplomatic dispute over Turkey's EU membership bid and a crackdown on demonstrations in the country intensified Friday as Germany summoned the Turkish ambassador over comments made by a minister about Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Merkel on Monday criticized the crackdown by security forces as "much too strong." The chancellor also has long been skeptical of Turkey's ambitions to join the European Union; her coalition government supports continuing membership talks, but this week blocked a decision to move forward the negotiations.

Turkey's minister in charge of EU affairs, Egemen Bagis, suggested on Thursday that Merkel was picking on Turkey for political gain as she attempts to win a third term in September elections. Bagis said that if Merkel is looking for "internal political material," then "this should not be Turkey." He also pointed to the election defeat last year of then-French President Nicolas Sarkozy, a fellow opponent of Turkey's EU membership.

"If Mrs. Merkel follows and reviews what happened to Sarkozy, who previously tried to use (Turkey) as political material, she will see that the fate of those who mess around with Turkey is not all that good," said Bagis, who is Turkey's chief EU negotiator.

German Foreign Ministry spokesman Andreas Peschke told reporters that ambassador Huseyin Avni Karslioglu was summoned to the ministry Friday. He would say only that the reason was comments by a Turkish official regarding Germany and the future of the EU membership talks, adding: "These are comments that met with incomprehension — this is not in order."

In an apparent tit-for-tat action, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Germany's top diplomat was being summoned, because the government wanted to express its "discomfort" with what he called "certain statements that have disturbed Turkey." Davutoglu, who spoke to Turkish state media during a visit to Ukraine, did not specify what statements he meant.

Bagis said Friday he hoped that Germany "steps back from (the) serious mistake" of blocking progress in Turkey's membership talks. Last month, German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said he was hopeful of opening negotiations on another chapter in the membership talks before the end of June. But on Thursday, Germany and the Netherlands blocked a decision to do so.

That chapter concerns regional policies, not Turkey's protests. Asked whether the decision to block its opening was linked to the Turkish crackdown, Peschke said it was down to "open technical questions" on which he wouldn't elaborate.

However, he added that "of course, as always in life, everything is linked to everything else." Human rights groups have said the protests in Turkey have left more than 5,000 people injured and more than 3,000 were detained and then released.

The demonstrations were sparked by a police crackdown on environmental activists in Istanbul May 31, but protesters also criticized what some regard as Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's authoritarian style of leadership.

Merkel also said Monday that "what is happening at the moment in Turkey does not correspond to our idea of the freedom to protest and the freedom of speech." NATO member Turkey began EU accession negotiations in 2005, but has made little progress, in part reflecting unease among some in Europe to admitting a populous Muslim nation.

Turkey's entry talks cover 35 different areas, or chapters. Only 13 have been opened, and several areas have been frozen over Turkey's refusal to allow ships and planes from Cyprus, an EU member, to enter its ports and airspace.

Germany itself is a potential obstacle to Turkish EU membership given that Merkel and her conservative party have long advocated a lesser, vaguely defined "privileged partnership," though Westerwelle's Free Democrats — her junior coalition partners— are less skeptical.

A spokesman for Merkel stressed that Germany's support for continuing membership talks remains unchanged. "Neither the chancellor nor the government are in any way questioning the accession process," Georg Streiter said. "It's not about whether, only about how the accession process is continued."

Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey, contributed to this report.

In Turkey's pious heartland, protests seem world away

By Jonathon Burch
KONYA, Turkey | Fri Jun 21, 2013

(Reuters) - "This Nation Is With You" declares a small billboard in the center of this conservative central Turkish city, the words emblazoned on an image of Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and a sea of his flag-waving supporters.

Cosmopolitan Istanbul or the avenues of the capital Ankara, rattled by weeks of anti-government protest, seem a world away from Konya, an industrial city in Turkey's pious Anatolian heartland, where support for the premier appears resolute.

The wave of riots has highlighted an underlying tension in Turkish society between a modern, secular middle-class, many living in Istanbul or on the Aegean and Mediterranean coasts, and a more conservative, religious population that forms the bedrock of support for Erdogan's Islamist-rooted AK Party.

Konya, a city of 1.1 million with a dynamic economy steeped in Islamic tradition, epitomizes Erdogan's reformist vision.

Few restaurants serve alcohol, the Islamic headscarf is more in evidence than in the main cities, and tourists are drawn to the tomb of Rumi, a 13th century Sufi mystic, rather than to any wild nightlife.

But it is also modernizing fast. One of the "Anatolian Tigers", cities whose small industries have flourished under a decade of AK Party rule, Konya's highways have been widened and a fast train line has put Ankara less than two hours away.

There is little sympathy here for the protesters of Istanbul, Ankara or Izmir, the country's three biggest cities and the main centers of unrest.

"There is no other party to vote for but the AK Party. Eighty percent of Konya thinks the same as me, go and ask them," said Yasar Bilen, a central heating salesman who has seen business thrive over the past ten years.

A pious self-made entrepreneur, Bilen, in his 60s, has prospered like many of Erdogan's grassroots supporters.

"I have changed the car I drive, I have changed the house I live in, I have changed my lifestyle, I have changed the education of my children, I have changed the shoes and clothes I wear," he said, a black and white picture on his wall of himself with a young Erdogan in 1974.

"The AKP has worked hard and lifted us out of a quagmire."

ECONOMIC BOOM

Erdogan could hardly have put it better himself.

His forceful, emotional style and common touch have won him unprecedented support in the conservative heartland, enabling him to dominate Turkish politics like no leader since Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who founded the modern republic 90 years ago.

He has made many democratic reforms, taming a military that toppled four governments in four decades, starting entry talks with the European Union and forging peace talks with Kurdish rebels to end a near 30-year war.

Per capita income has tripled in nominal terms and business boomed, with the Anatolian Tigers reaping much of the benefit.

On the electoral map, nearly all of Turkey - apart from the Aegean coast, the mainly Kurdish southeast corner and a small region on the European continent - is AK Party orange.

So Erdogan takes the protests as a personal affront.

But even in AK strongholds, his domineering leadership style and what is seen as his meddling in private lives is beginning to grate - from his declaration of a non-alcoholic yoghurt as the national drink over the potent aniseed spirit raki, to his suggestion that women should bear three children.

There were two or three small protests in Konya in the early days of the unrest, but unlike demonstrations elsewhere, the police stepped in not to break the group up but to protect the protesters from stick-wielding gangs.

"Am I completely happy with Erdogan? Of course not," said Sinasi Celik, 46, a waiter in the city of Nevsehir, some 200 km (120 miles) east of Konya. "I don't like his 'I do what I want' style ... There's been too much pressure over personal things like how many kids we should have.

"But I'll tell you, the election outcome here, it wouldn't change. Because before, there were no roads, no proper hospitals. It's different now, people are better off."

OVERBEARING

A small-scale environmental protest in late May over government plans to develop an Istanbul park quickly spread into the broadest show of public defiance against Erdogan's government during his decade in power.

Police fired teargas and water cannon to disperse stone-throwing protesters night after night in cities including Istanbul and Ankara, unrest in which four people died and some 7,500 suffered injuries ranging from cuts to breathing difficulties, according to the Turkish Medical Association.

The protesters saw his plan to build a replica Ottoman-era barracks on one of central Istanbul's few remaining green spaces as symptomatic of an arrogant and overbearing government, the final straw after restrictions on alcohol sales and a police show of force to prevent May Day demonstrations a month earlier.

Those who took to the streets were from all walks of life - doctors and lawyers to leftists and nationalists - but they were predominantly young, often too young to remember the series of military coups and crumbling coalition governments that preceded the AK Party, when Turkey was an economic backwater.

"They want to take our nation back to the dark ages," said Naci, a 77-year old retired civil servant and resident of Nevsehir, a smaller central Anatolian town.

"I want to ask those protesters: let's say Erdogan is gone. Who will replace him? That (Kemal) Kilicdaroglu? He can't even manage a building, let alone govern a nation," he said of the leader of the opposition Republican People's Party (CHP).

It is a question even the Istanbul protesters have struggled to answer. The AK Party's dominance derives, at least in part, from a lack of robust opposition. The center-left CHP has been largely sidelined from government since the 1970s and now holds just 134 seats in the 550-seat parliament.

For the protesters of Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir, that leaves the AK Party free to impose its will, which many fear includes an agenda of creeping Islamisation.

In Konya, there is little sense of such a threat. Instead, many see in Erdogan a liberator after decades of militantly secularist rule in a nation of 76 million people, the overwhelming majority of whom are Muslims.

"If there's interference in anyone's life then it is the Muslims of this country that have suffered ... Headscarved girls could not go to university, bearded men could not get employment in state institutions. On the other side, anyone wearing a mini skirt and high heels, no-one said a word," said Bilen.

"Those that say there is oppression are lying."

(Additional reporting by Humeyra Pamuk in Nevsehir; Writing by Nick Tattersall; Editing by Peter Graff)

Source: Reuters.
Link: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/21/us-turkey-protests-heartland-idUSBRE95K0AF20130621.

FIFA: Under-20 WCup upbeat despite demos

June 19, 2013

ISTANBUL (AP) — The Under-20 World Cup kicks off Friday in Turkey with FIFA promising the tournament will go off without a hitch despite sometimes violent, anti-government protests that have gripped Istanbul and other Turkish cities in recent weeks.

Jim Boyce, chairman of the tournament organizing committee, acknowledged that security has been beefed up for the June 21-July 13 tournament. The Northern Irishman said FIFA security experts were comfortable with arrangements for the 24 teams and spectators in the seven host cities and he predicted there would not be any problems with security.

"The FIFA security people are very happy with the security situation that exists at present in Turkey," Boyce said. "FIFA is determined that this tournament will go ahead and certainly I sincerely hope the security situation will not be a problem and I can honestly say I don't think it will be."

Anti-government demonstrations erupted across Turkey after riot police brutally cracked down on environmental activists who opposed plans to remove trees and develop Gezi Park, which lies next to Istanbul's famed Taksim Square, on May 31.

The protesters have expressed discontent with what they say is the gradual erosion of freedoms and secular values during Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's 10 years in office. In the past few days, the protests have given way to peaceful resistance although police dispersed pockets of protesters in Ankara and Istanbul on Tuesday night and early Wednesday.

Hundreds of protesters stood still for hours on squares on main streets in several cities, mimicking a lone protester who started the trend on Istanbul's Taksim Square on Monday and has been dubbed the "Standing Man."

A government official, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with government rules that bar civil servants from speaking to journalists without prior authorization, said security for the U-20 World Cup as well as the Mediterranean Games, which open in Mersin on Wednesday, had been stepped up well before the nationwide anti-government protests erupted.

Last month, twin car bomb explosions at the town of Reyhanli near the border with Syria killed 53 people and authorities were concerned that the games in Mersin, some 300 kilometers west of Reyhanli, may also be targeted, the official said.

The number of police deployed in Mersin and cities hosting the Under-20 matches have been increased, as have the number of security cameras, the official said. He added that none of the Under-20 venues were believed to be at risk of being targeted by anti-government protests.

The United States team, which arrived Sunday and is based in Istanbul, said they had seen no sign of trouble. "In terms of security, we feel secure and we feel we are in a good place and Turkey is a great place to be right now," coach Tab Ramos told The Associated Press. "There is no reason for us to think any differently. We actually drove 45 minutes across town to get to practice and drove through the whole city. There were no signs other than normal life around here."

U.S. captain Caleb Stanko added that there was nothing to worry about. "We feel really safe. There is nothing really scary going on," Stanko said. "At least we don't see any of it. I think my parents are worried. They are not here and they don't actually see what is going on."

Organizers have also turned their attention to ensuring the stadiums are filled once the tournament starts Friday with the U.S. taking on Spain and France facing Ghana in Group A. Cuba plays South Korea and Nigeria takes on Portugal in Group B.

They said 300,000 of the 1.3 million available tickets have been sold for the tournament. "It's very important the Turkish football public come out and give great support to this tournament," said Boyce, noting this is the next biggest FIFA competition after the World Cup.

"I know Turkey for example is very keen on hopefully hosting the likes of the European finals," he said. "Obviously an event like this will put Turkish football on the map and hopefully will help them in their bid in the future to host bigger tournaments such as a World Cup."

Local organizers said they were confident more tickets would be sold as the matches drew closer, predicting the total sold would double to 600,000. Predicting a winner is particularly difficult at this edition of the tournament in large part because Brazil and Argentina, which have won eight of the past 10 competitions, failed to qualify.

The emerging favorite appears to be Spain, which is looking to add a second Under-20 World Cup to its increasingly crowded trophy cabinet. Having won the Under-19 European championship, it boasts a side that plays the quick-touch "tiki taka" style known for its quick passing and possession.

Midfielder Oliver commands the attack while wide men Gerard Deulofeu and Jese — who finished the European Championship as top scorer — are the main scoring threats. The Americans come into their opening match against Spain as underdogs but insist they are relishing the opportunity to face one of the tournament's best teams.

"Spain is probably the favorite to win the whole thing and the fact we can start with Spain is a great opportunity for us and for our players to perform and see where we stand," Ramos said. The competition is organized into six groups of four teams each, with the top two advancing along with the four best third-place teams. The knockout stage of the competition begins July 2.

Group A is seen as the toughest since it features Spain, the U.S., France and Ghana, all of which are considered capable of advancing deep into the tournament. Nigeria and Asian champions South Korea are favored to move out of Group B, which also includes Cuba and Portugal.

South American champion Colombia is the closest thing to a sure bet in Group C though home favorite Turkey is also a potential threat in a group also featuring El Salvador and Australia. Group D is also tight with Concacaf champion Mexico, which beat the United States in qualifying, appearing the class of a group that also includes Paraguay, Mali and Greece.

Group E is a toss-up with four seemingly evenly matched teams — England, Iraq, Chile and African champion Egypt — all with a strong case to advance. Finally, Uruguay and Croatia are tipped to advance out of Group F, ahead of New Zealand and Uzbekistan.

Associated Press writer Suzan Fraser in Ankara contributed to this report.

Turkish official approves 'standing man' protest

June 19, 2013

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — The new form of resistance that is spreading through Turkey has received a nod of approval from the country's deputy prime minister.

Bulent Arinc told reporters Wednesday that the protest by hundreds of people standing motionless for hours in streets and squares were peaceful and "pleasing to the eye." He urged protesters, however, not to obstruct traffic and not to endanger their health.

It was the first government comment on the passive protest that was started by a lone protester who stood still for some eight hours on Istanbul's Taksim Square on Monday. A police crackdown that began May 31 against environmentalists and other activists in Taksim Square set off more than two-weeks of anti-government protests.

Police dispersed pockets of protesters who set up barricades in two cities overnight Tuesday.

Turkey's defiant PM says police to get more power

June 18, 2013

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey's prime minister on Tuesday brushed aside international criticism over his government's crackdown on widespread demonstrations and vowed to increase the police's powers to deal with the unrest. Meanwhile, more than 90 people were detained in police raids linked to the protests.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan's defiant stance appeared aimed at shoring up his conservative base in Turkey, where the rallies have exposed fissures between urban and largely secularist Turks and the more religious classes. But Erdogan's bellicosity has dented his global reputation; EU officials on Tuesday nixed a visit due to some of his comments.

Anti-government demonstrations sprouted across Turkey after May 31, when riot police brutally cracked down on peaceful environmental activists who opposed plans to remove trees and develop Gezi Park, which lies next to Istanbul's famed Taksim Square.

The crackdowns have continued since as protests have spread and attracted a range of groups unhappy with the 10-year rule of Erdogan, whom many believe is trying to gradually impose his religious and conservative views in Turkey, which has long had a secular democracy.

Four protesters and one police officer have been killed, and Turkey's doctors association said an investigation was underway into the death of a fifth person who was exposed to tear gas. More than 7,800 people have been injured; six are in critical condition and 11 lost their eyesight after being hit by flying objects.

Police on Tuesday raided homes and offices in the capital, Ankara, and Istanbul, detaining at least 92 people suspected of involvement in violence. The state-run Anadolu news agency said the suspects were detained for allegedly destroying public property, inciting people to revolt or attacking police.

Addressing lawmakers belonging to his Islamic-rooted Justice and Development Party, Erdogan declared that riot police had acted with restraint and that their powers would be increased, giving them more leeway in dealing with future demonstrations.

"Our security forces put up a successful and extremely patient struggle against the acts of violence by remaining within the limits set by democracy and the law," Erdogan said. In response to the ongoing confrontations, some protesters have adopted a special maneuver to get their point across: standing still.

The trend was launched by performance artist Erdem Gunduz, who stood silently for hours in Istanbul's central Taksim Square on Monday night as others joined him and replicated the protest in other cities.

As the numbers swelled to a few hundred, police broke up the demonstration in Taksim late Monday, but by Tuesday evening dozens of protesters could be seen standing motionless in the square. The United Nations and New York-based Human Rights Watch have both expressed alarm over reports that tear gas canisters and pepper spray were fired directly at demonstrators and into closed spaces, actions that significantly increase the danger posed to the individuals targeted.

Navi Pillay, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, said law enforcement bodies must be held accountable, and that "the government must also provide adequate reparation to victims of excessive use of force and other serious human rights violations by security forces."

Erdogan did not mention the reports of tear gas being fired into closed spaces or directly at protesters, but told lawmakers it was police officers' "natural right" to fire tear gas. Also Tuesday, a United Nations spokesman said U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was saddened by the deaths and injuries in Turkey and urged "maximum restraint and the pursuit of constructive dialogue in order to resolve differences and avoid further violent confrontation."

"He believes that stability is best assured through such dialogue and when the rights to peaceful assembly and the freedom of expression are fully respected," said the spokesman, Eduardo del Buey. Turkey has long aspired to join the European Union, but the events of recent weeks have strained its relations with the bloc.

EU lawmakers said they'd be scrapping a Wednesday visit to Turkey after Erdogan last week issued stinging criticism of an EU resolution that expressed concern over the "disproportionate and excessive use of force" by Turkish police against the demonstrators.

Erdogan had declared that he "won't recognize the decision that the European Union Parliament is going to take" and asked them, "Who do you think you are by taking such a decision?" European parliamentarian Elmar Brok said the Turkish government "should understand how to deal with criticism."

__ Edith M. Lederer in New York contributed.

Turkey unrest goes on despite end to park protest

June 17, 2013

ISTANBUL (AP) — Riot police cordoned off streets, set up roadblocks and fired tear gas and water cannon to prevent anti-government protesters from converging on Istanbul's central Taksim Square on Sunday, unbowed even as Turkey's prime minister addressed hundreds of thousands of supporters a few kilometers away.

The contrasting scenes pointed to an increasing polarization in Turkish society — one which critics say Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has fueled with the fiery rhetoric he has maintained since they began more than two weeks ago.

A police crackdown Saturday evening that ended an 18-day peaceful sit-in at Taksim Square's Gezi Park sparked daylong unrest on the streets of Istanbul, while police also broke up demonstrations in the capital, Ankara, and the southern city of Adana.

The protests began in Gezi Park more than two weeks ago and spread to dozens of cities across the country. Erdogan has blamed them on a nebulous plot to destabilize his government. Five people, including a policeman, have died and more than 5,000 have been injured, according to a Turkish rights group.

Elected to his third term just two years ago with 50 percent of the vote and having steered his country to healthy economic growth, the protests are unlikely to prove an immediate threat to Erdogan's government. But they have dented his international image and exposed growing divisions within Turkish society. Never before in his 10-year tenure has Erdogan faced such an open or broad expression of discontent.

Critics have accused him of an increasingly autocratic way of governing and of trying to impose his conservative Muslim views on the lifestyles of the entire population in a country governed by secular laws — charges he vehemently denies.

"They say, 'Mr. prime minister, you are too harsh,' and some (call me) 'dictator'," he said during his speech in his second political rally in as many days. "What kind of a dictator meets with people who occupy Gezi Park as well as the sincere environmentalists?" he questioned, referring to a meeting Thursday night with protest representatives.

Erdogan defended his decision to send police in to end the occupation of the park, where protesters had set up a tent city complete with a library, food distribution center, infirmary, children's activity area and plant nursery. Water cannon and tear gas forced thousands to flee, and cleanup crews ripped down the tents and food overnight.

"I did my duty as prime minister," he told his supporters. "Otherwise there would be no point in my being in office." About 10 kilometers (six miles) away in the center of the city, police fired tear gas, water cannon and rubber bullets to disperse thousands of protesters trying to converge on Taksim Square. In some neighborhoods, protesters set up barricades across streets while youths threw stones at police.

In others, police broke up demonstrations with dense clouds of stinging tear gas that sent protesters fleeing into side streets. Some took refuge in nearby cafes and restaurants, where waiters clutched napkins to their faces to ward off the gas.

Similar scenes developed in Ankara, where around 50 demonstrators were injured, including a 20-year-old woman who was in critical condition after being hit in the back of her head with a tear gas canister, according to Selcuk Atalay, secretary-general of the Ankara Medical Association.

In the southern city of Adana, police clashed with stone-throwing demonstrators, the state-run Anadolu Agency said. A fight broke also broke out between the demonstrators, with one group trying to prevent the other from throwing stones at police.

Anadolu said a total of 105 people were detained in Ankara, including a Russian and an Iranian. Rights group Amnesty International said more than 100 people were believed to have been detained during Saturday's demonstrations in Taksim and nearby districts, and said police were refusing to give details of their whereabouts.

Some among the thousands who fled Gezi Park during Saturday night's police operation had still not managed to return home by Sunday afternoon, fearing being arrested by the police. Erdogan has repeatedly labeled those who attended the park protests as troublemakers and illegal groups, although he has also said he understood the complaints of those who had truly environmental concerns at heart.

One young man who had been demonstrating for days in Taksim Square and Gezi Park, said that as he and his friends fled the police operation in Gezi Park, they ran into a group of men armed with iron bars who chased them through the streets. It was unclear who they were.

Kenan, who spoke on condition his full name not be used for fear of arrest or being targeted in reprisals, said the group took refuge in an apartment building, where they were still hiding late Sunday afternoon.

Labor unions called for a one-day strike that would include doctors, lawyers, engineers and civil servants in support of the protesters. Strikes, however, often have little visible impact on daily life in Turkey.

In a potentially worrying development suggestive of a possible escalation in the violence, Erdogan said two police officers had been injured by bullets fired during the overnight unrest. "(One) was shot with a bullet in the stomach, the other was shot in the leg," he said.

On Sunday, TV footage showed police detaining white-jacketed medical personnel who had been helping treat injured protesters, leading them away with their hands cuffed behind their backs. Istanbul Gov. Huseyin Avni Mutlu denied they were medical staff.

"They wore doctors' white coats but had nothing to do with medicine or health. In fact, one of them had seven separate criminal records for theft," he said on his Twitter account, contradicting earlier comments in which he had said several doctors had been detained.

Amnesty International noted that the health minister had previously stated that the improvised infirmaries set up by protesters to treat those injured in clashes or during police intervention were illegal and that doctors could face prosecution.

"It is completely unacceptable that doctors should be threatened with prosecution for providing medical attention for people in need," Andrew Gardner, Amnesty International's researcher on Turkey, said in a statement. "The doctors must be released immediately and any threat to prosecute them removed."

Fraser reported from Ankara. Burhan Ozbilici and Jamey Keaten in Ankara contributed to this report.

Turkish PM urges protesters to leave Gezi Park

June 14, 2013

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey's prime minister on Friday urged a small delegation of protesters to persuade hundreds of others occupying an Istanbul park to withdraw.

Turkish activists leading a sit-in were considering a promise by Recep Tayyip Erdogan to let the courts and a potential referendum decide the fate of the much-despised Gezi Park redevelopment project — a plan that has sparked Turkey's biggest protests in decades. The pledge was made during last-ditch negotiations after Erdogan had issued what he called a "final warning" to protesters.

The two-week standoff has damaged Erdogan's international reputation and led to repeated interventions by riot police. After initially inflaming tensions by dubbing the protesters "terrorists," the prime minister has moderated his stance in closed-door talks in the last few days.

But Erdogan told party members Friday that the protesters in the park had "stayed long enough." "'Go and speak to them ... Don't let us be forced into reverting to different measures,'" Erdogan said he had told the protesters' representatives.

Earlier in the day, Erdogan's ruling party announced that the government would suspend its plan to cut down trees in Gezi Park and install a replica Ottoman barracks until the courts could rule on its legality. And even if the courts sided with the government, a city referendum would be held to determine the plan's fate, officials said.

It remained far from clear, however, whether the overtures would work. Erdogan has pledged to end the two-week protest but has also urged his supporters to rally in Ankara and Istanbul this weekend. Those demonstrations could raise tension between his conservative, Islamic base and the people occupying the park who are mostly — but not all — liberal- and secular-minded.

As night fell Friday, a festive mood pervaded the park, and the crowd of thousands swelled. Many sang songs or snapped photos of makeshift barricades erected by protesters. The Taksim Solidarity group, two of whose members were in the meeting with Erdogan, has emerged as the most high-profile from the occupation that began last month. But it does not speak for all of the hundreds camping in the park, many of whom claim no affiliation to any group.

Bilge Seckin, a member of the umbrella group, said discussions in the park about Erdogan's initiative were continuing, but she sensed "the general feeling is that the people's requests were not addressed" during the talks with the prime minister.

"For instance on the police violence, there were requests that senior officials responsible be removed from duty," she said, referring to the protesters demands. "They (authorities) are saying that police officers are being investigated — which is not very satisfactory."

It was not clear when, or if, the protest groups would make a formal response to Erdogan's initiative. Many protesters were still seething at how a peaceful protest has been sometimes overtaken as riot police clashed with groups of stone- and firebomb-throwing youths. Such scenes prompted the European Parliament to condemn the heavy-handed response by Turkish police.

A May 31 police raid to clear out the park ignited demonstrations that morphed into broader protests against what many see as the prime minister's increasingly authoritarian style of government. Erdogan's opponents have grown increasingly suspicious about what they call a gradual erosion of freedoms and secular Turkish values under his Islamic-rooted party's government. It has passed new restrictions on alcohol and attempted but dropped a plan to limit women's access to abortion.

Mobilizing the courts and a referendum, however, could shield the prime minister from accusations of an authoritarian response. "Until the courts give their final verdicts, no action will be taken regarding Gezi Park," said Huseyin Celik, a spokesman for Erdogan's Justice and Development Party, after the meeting. "Even if the court ... is in favor of our government's decisions, our government will hold a referendum to see what our people think — what they want and don't want."

Tayfun Kahraman, one of the Taksim Solidarity members who attended the meeting, said he believed Erdogan had offered "positive words," and that fellow activists would consider them in a "positive manner." But he said those in Gezi Park would "make their own assessments."

"We are Gezi Park and we decide. No one has the luxury to decide on our behalf," he said. Suspicion within the park about Erdogan's tactics and motives remains widespread. "The prime minister calls the people he pleases to the meetings and says some stuff," said demonstrator Murat Tan. "We don't care about them much. Today, we saved the trees here but our main goal is to save the people."

Analysts say the protests don't present a threat to Erdogan's tenure, but do threaten his legacy. Some say Erdogan would like to leave a mark on history, similar to that of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founding father of modern Turkey.

Erdogan himself sat in front of a portrait of Ataturk during the overnight talks at his residence in Ankara.

Eds: Becatoros reported from Istanbul. Onur Cakir in Istanbul and Jamey Keaten in Ankara contributed to this report.

Turkish PM's supporters hold rallies in Macedonia

June 14, 2013

SKOPJE, Macedonia (AP) — Ethnic Turks and Albanians in two Macedonian cities have held peaceful rallies in support of the prime minister of Turkey, which has been rocked by two weeks of anti-government protests.

"Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Skopje is with you," a few hundred people chanted after midday prayers at a mosque in the capital Skopje. Rally organizers said that while they did not oppose the protests in Turkey, they deplored violence by some demonstrators.

About 2,000 people attended a similar rally in the western town of Gostivar. Organizers said participants included ethnic Turks from Albania, Bulgaria and Kosovo. About 80,000 ethnic Turks live in Macedonia, and about a third of the country's 2.1 million people are Muslims.

Turkish PM vows new gesture aimed to cool protests

June 14, 2013

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkish activists leading a sit-in were considering a promise Friday by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to let the courts — and a potential referendum — decide the fate of an Istanbul park redevelopment project that has sparked Turkey's biggest protests in decades.

In last-ditch negotiations after Erdogan issued a "final warning" to protesters, his ruling party announced early Friday that the government would suspend a controversial construction plan for Istanbul's Gezi Park until courts could rule on its legality. Even if the courts sided with the government, a city referendum would be held to determine the plan's fate, officials said.

The unilateral pledge aimed to cajole protesters into ending a two-week standoff that has damaged Erdogan's international reputation and led to repeated clashes with riot police. After initially inflaming tensions by dubbing the protesters "terrorists" and issuing defiant public remarks, Erdogan has moderated his stance in closed-door talks this week.

It remained far from clear, however, whether the overture would work. The park is one of the few green areas left in the sprawling metropolis of Istanbul and many protesters were still seething over the forceful operations by riot police that at times devolved into violent clashes with stone- and firebomb-throwing youths.

Such scenes prompted the European Parliament on Wednesday to condemn the heavy-handed response by Turkish police and sparked a heated riposte from Erdogan. A May 31 police raid to clear out the park ignited demonstrations that morphed into broader protests against what many say is the prime minister's increasingly authoritarian style of government. Five people — four demonstrators and a police officer —were killed in the protests that spread to dozens of other cities.

The protests have centered lately on three cities: Istanbul, Izmir on the Aegean Sea coast, and Ankara, the capital. Erdogan's opponents, including many protesters, have grown increasingly suspicious about what they call a gradual erosion of freedoms and secular Turkish values under his Islamic-rooted party's government. It has passed new restrictions on alcohol and attempted but dropped a plan to limit women's access to abortion.

Mobilizing instruments of democracy and the state — the courts, and a referendum — could shield the prime minister from accusations of an authoritarian response. "Until the courts give their final verdicts, no action will be taken regarding Gezi Park," said Huseyin Celik, a spokesman for Erdogan's Justice and Development Party, after the meeting. "Even if the court ... is in favor of our government's decisions, our government will hold a referendum to see what our people think — what they want and don't want."

The Taksim Solidarity group, two of whose members were in the meeting with Erdogan, has emerged as the most high-profile from the occupation that began last month. But it does not speak for all of the hundreds camping in the park. Many say they have no affiliation to any group or party.

Tayfun Kahraman, one of the Taksim Solidarity members who attended the meeting, said he believed Erdogan had offered "positive words," and that fellow activists would consider them in a "positive manner." But he said those in Gezi Park would "make their own assessments."

Suspicion within the park about Erdogan's tactics and motives remains widespread, and the protesters are firmly entrenched: In recent days, the festive tent-village atmosphere — with amenities like a medical station and library with donated books — has been marked by nightly piano concerts.

"The prime minister calls the people he pleases to the meetings and says some stuff," said demonstrator Murat Tan. "We don't care about them much. Today, we saved the trees here but our main goal is to save the people."

Erdogan has pledged to end the protest, and has called his supporters to rally in Ankara and Istanbul this weekend. But those demonstrations could revive the discord between his conservative, Islamic base, and more liberal- and secular-minded progressives and others who are holed up in the park — potentially torpedoing his own efforts to end to the showdown.

Analysts say the protests don't present a threat to Erdogan's tenure, but threaten his legacy. Some say he has ambitions to enter the history books as a contemporary answer to Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founding father of modern Turkey.

Erdogan has reiterated his support for Turkey's secular democracy in the face of the accusations of authoritarianism — and sat in front of a portrait of Ataturk during the overnight talks at his residence in Ankara.

Eds: Onur Cakir in Istanbul and Jamey Keaten in Ankara contributed to this report.

Turkish gov't open to referendum to end protests

June 13, 2013

ISTANBUL (AP) — Turkey's government on Wednesday offered a first concrete gesture aimed at ending nearly two weeks of street protests, proposing a referendum on a development project in Istanbul that triggered demonstrations that have become the biggest challenge to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's 10-year tenure.

Protesters expressed doubts about the offer, however, and continued to converge in Taksim Square's Gezi Park, epicenter of the anti-government protests that began in Istanbul 13 days ago and spread across the country. At times, police have broken up demonstrations using tear gas, water cannon and rubber bullets.

The protests erupted May 31 after a violent police crackdown on a peaceful sit-in by activists objecting to a development project that would replace Gezi Park with a replica Ottoman-era barracks. They then spread to dozens of cities, rallying tens of thousands of people each night.

In a skirmish late Wednesday in Ankara, police used tear gas and water cannon to break up some 2,500 protesters who set up makeshift barricades on a road leading to government offices. The referendum proposal came after Erdogan, who had been defiant and uncompromising in recent days, met with a group of 11 activists, including academics, students and artists, in Ankara. However, groups involved in the protests in Taksim and the park boycotted the meeting, saying they weren't invited and the attendees didn't represent them.

Greenpeace said it didn't participate because of an "environment of violence" in the country, while Taksim Solidarity, which has been coordinating much of the occupation of Gezi Park, said it had not been invited. The group reiterated its demands that Gezi remain a public park, that abusive senior officials be fired, and all detained protesters be released — not issues the referendum would address.

But the discussion was the first sign that Erdogan was looking for an exit from the showdown, and came hours after some European leaders expressed concern about recent strong-armed Turkish police tactics and hopes that the prime minister would soften his stance.

Huseyin Celik, spokesman for Erdogan's Islamic-rooted Justice and Development party, announced it would consider holding a referendum over the development project. But he said any vote would exclude the planned demolition of a cultural center that the protesters also oppose, insisting it was in an earthquake-prone area and had to come down.

In a more defiant note, he said the ongoing sit-in in Gezi Park would not be allowed to continue "until doomsday" — a sign that authorities' patience is running out. But Celik also quoted Erdogan as saying that police would be investigated, and any found to have used excessive force against protesters would be punished.

Erdogan, who has claimed the protests were orchestrated by extremists and "terrorists," has become the centerpiece of the protesters' ire. So a referendum would be a political gamble that the government can mobilize its supporters, win the vote and the demonstrators would go home.

"The most concrete result of the meeting was this: we can take this issue to the people of Istanbul in a referendum. We can ask the people of Istanbul if they want it (the barracks)," Celik said. "We will ask them: 'Do you accept what's going on, do you want it or not?'"

But many protesters were skeptical. "I don't think anything changed with that," said Hatice Yamak of the referendum plan. "We don't think he will do it — I think he's lying." Other protesters were suspicious of how the vote would be held.

"I think there will be a referendum but it won't be fair," said Mert Yildirim, a 28-year-old who had been attending the protests every night. "They will announce that the people want Gezi Park to become a shopping mall. They will cheat."

But Erdogan's maneuver could prove shrewd, by putting the protesters in a position of rejecting a referendum — a quintessential exercise of democracy. Many of them have accused Erdogan, who was re-elected in 2011 and has presided over striking economic growth, of showing an increasingly authoritarian streak.

"(The referendum proposal) falls short, and it won't help. This is not the way town planning is done," said Korhan Gumus, an architect and member of the Taksim Solidarity Platform activist group. "The referendum will polarize society even more. (Gezi Park) will become a battleground."

Party spokesman Celik appeared confident that Erdogan would be vindicated at the ballot box: "We cannot predict the decision of the people, but we believe that our people will side with our party's position."

As if to let the referendum proposal sink in, the Istanbul governor, Huseyin Avni Mutlu, tweeted that riot police would not enter the park on Wednesday. Turkish leaders were also grappling with a public image stain. International TV networks have beamed images of clashes on the square, including a muscular police sweep overnight Tuesday to Wednesday that Turkey's Human Rights Foundation said injured more than 600 people, including a 1-year-old baby.

In London, British Prime Minister David Cameron called the events in Istanbul "disturbing and concerning," while stopping short of criticizing Erdogan's response. A spokesman for Chancellor Angela Merkel said Germany's government was watching developments "with great preoccupation," and urged "de-escalation."

Over the two weeks, four people have died in the protests, including a police officer, and more than 5,000 people have been injured or sought treatment for tear gas. The protests took a new flavor earlier Wednesday as thousands of black-robed lawyers stormed out of their courthouses to deride allegedly rough treatment of their colleagues detained by police a day earlier. Sema Aksoy, the deputy head of the Ankara lawyer's association, said the lawyers were handcuffed and pulled over the ground. She called the police action an affront to Turkey's judicial system.

"Lawyers can't be dragged on the ground!" the demonstrating lawyers shouted in rhythm as they marched out of an Istanbul courthouse. Riot police stood off to the side, shields at the ready. A spokesman for the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. said police had detained two of its reporters covering the protests in Istanbul. Sasa Petricic and Derek Stoffel were in "good condition," CBC spokesman Chuck Thompson said. Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird called the Turkish ambassador to express his concerns.

Keaten reported from Ankara. Suzan Fraser and Ezgi Akin in Ankara, Cassandra Vinograd in London, Juergen Baetz in Berlin, and Rob Gillies in Toronto contributed to this report.

Clashes in Istanbul extend into night in Taksim

June 12, 2013

ISTANBUL (AP) — Riot police fired tear gas, water cannon and rubber bullets in day-long clashes that lasted into the early hours Wednesday, battling protesters who have been occupying Istanbul's central Taksim Square and its adjacent Gezi Park in the country's most severe anti-government protests in decades.

The crisis has left Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan looking vulnerable for the first time in his decade in power and has threatened to tarnish the international image of Turkey, a Muslim majority country with a strongly secular tradition, a burgeoning economy and close ties with the United States.

Throughout the protests, Erdogan has maintained a defiant tone, insisting he would not be bowed by what he described as a vocal minority. On Tuesday, as police clashed with protesters in Taksim, he insisted again that the unrest was part of a conspiracy against his government.

The demonstrators, he said, "are being used by some financial institutions, the interest rate lobby and media groups to (harm) Turkey's economy and (scare away) investments." A peaceful demonstration against the park's redevelopment that began more than two weeks ago has grown into the biggest test of Erdogan's authority, sparked by outrage over a violent police crackdown on May 31 against a peaceful sit-in in the park.

The unrest has spread to 78 cities across the country, with protesters championing their objections to what they say is the prime minister's increasingly authoritarian style and his perceived attempts to impose a religious and conservative lifestyle on a country with secular laws — charges he rejects.

Four people have been killed, including a policeman, and about 5,000 have been treated for injuries or the effects of tear gas, according to the Turkish Human Rights Foundation. Thousands of police moved in early Tuesday, pushing past improvised barricades set up by the protesters who have swarmed through the massive square and park in the tens of thousands for the past 12 days.

Police fired repeated rounds of tear gas that rose in stinging plumes of acrid smoke from the square in running battles with groups of protesters hurling fireworks, bottles, rocks and firebombs in a cat-and-mouse game that lasted through the day and into the night.

More than 30,000 converged on the square again as dusk fell and were repelled by water cannon, rubber bullets and tear gas after Istanbul's governor, Huseyin Avni Mutlu, said the police came under attack from "marginal groups."

By the early hours of Wednesday, cleanup crews had moved into Taksim Square, clearing the debris and dismantling the makeshift shelters the protesters had set up. Protesters set up barricades of metal railings and smashed vehicles at the edge of the square leading into Gezi Park, where hundreds returned despite repeated rounds of tear gas being fired into their midst. Fearing injury, many protesters scrawled their blood type on their forearms with marker pens.

The area reverberated with the echoes of exploding tear gas canisters into the night, while volunteers ferried the injured to waiting ambulances. Gezi Park, with its thousands of camped-out demonstrators young and old, has become the symbol of the protests. Both the governor and the police initially promised that only Taksim Square would be cleared, not the park.

But late into the night, the governor indicated a more muscular police sweep was imminent. "We will open the square when everything normalizes in the area, and our security forces completely control the area," Mutlu told A Haber news channel. "Our children who stay at Gezi Park are at risk, because we will clean the area of the marginal groups," he said, referring to what the government has said are troublemakers among the protesters.

"We won't allow our government to be seen as weak." In the capital, Ankara, police fired water cannon and tear gas to disperse several hundred protesters — some throwing stones — who gathered in sympathy with their Istanbul counterparts. In the early hours of Wednesday, police moved in to Kugulu Park where protesters had been camping. They made dozens of protesters pack up their tents, and arguments broke out with those unwilling to move.

Tuesday's clashes came a day after Taksim saw its smallest gathering since the demonstrations began. The government had said Erdogan would meet with some of those occupying the park on Wednesday to hear their views.

Erdogan, a devout Muslim, says he is committed to Turkey's secular laws and denies charges of an authoritarian manner. As he defended his tough stance, he gave critics little hope of a shift in his position.

"Were we supposed to kneel before them and say, 'Please remove your pieces of rags?'" he asked, referring to the dozens of banners and flags the protesters had festooned in the square. "They can call me harsh, but this Tayyip Erdogan won't change."

Confident of his position of power after winning the last elections in 2011 with 50 percent of the vote, Erdogan has insisted he will prevail. He made it clear that he has come to the end of his patience with the protesters, whom he accused of sullying Turkey's image abroad and being vandals and troublemakers.

"To those who ... are at Taksim and elsewhere taking part in the demonstrations with sincere feelings: I call on you to leave those places and to end these incidents and I send you my love. But for those who want to continue with the incidents I say: 'It's over.' As of now we have no tolerance for them."

"Not only will we end the actions, we will be at the necks of the provocateurs and terrorists, and no one will get away with it," he added.

Susan Fraser, Jamey Keaten and Ezgi Akin contributed from Ankara, Turkey.