Quote:Demonstrators are angry at government plans to cut down trees in Gezi Park, next to Taksim Square, to make way for a replica Ottoman army barracks and a shopping mall. They say it is the last green space of any size in the center of Istanbul.

• • Richard Seymour
    
  • guardian.co.uk, Saturday 1 June 2013 02.34 AEST
    

Demonstrators help one another as Turkish riot police use tear gas to disperse a protest in Taksim Gezi park. Photograph: Bulent Kilic/AFP/Getty Images

This morning, Turkish police surrounded protesters in Taksim Gezi park, the central square in Istanbul, blocked all exits and attacked them with chemical sprays and teargas.
An Occupy-style movement has taken off in Istanbul. The ostensible issue of conflict is modest. Protesters started gathering in the park on 27 May, to oppose its demolition as part of a redevelopment plan. But this is more than an environmental protest. It has become a lightning conductor for all the grievances accumulated against the government.
Police have waited until the early hours of each morning to attack, just as police in the US did when dealing with Occupy protesters. They set fire to the tents in which protesters were sleeping and showered them with pepper spray and teargas. A student had to undergo surgery after injuries to his genitals.
The occupiers adapted and started to wear homemade gas masks. More importantly, they called for solidarity. In response to yesterday's assault, thousands of protesters turned up, including opposition politicians. But this morning's attack allowed no defence or escape. The park, and the area around it, is still closed, and still under clouds of gas.
In April, a Justice and Development party (AKP) leader warned that the liberals who had supported them in the last decade would no longer do so. This was as good a sign as any that the repression would increase, as the neoliberal Islamist party forced through its modernisation agenda.
The AKP represents a peculiar type of conservative populism. Its bedrock, enriched immensely in the last decade, is the conservative Muslim bourgeoisie that first emerged as a result of Turgut Özal's economic policies in the 1980s. But, while denying it is a religious party, it has used the politics of piety to gain a popular base and to strengthen the urban rightwing.
It has spent more than a decade in government building up its authority. The privatisation process has led to accelerated inequality, accompanied by repression. But it has also attracted floods of international investment, leading to growth rates of close to 5% a year. This has enabled the regime to pay off the last of its IMF loans, so that it was even in a position to offer the IMF $5bn to help with the Eurozone crisis in 2012.
In the meantime, the AKP has gradually consolidated its support within the state apparatus and media, and no longer needs its liberal backers. The Turkish military leadership has been compelled to accept the Islamists, having suffered a significant loss of power relative to other branches of the state such as the police and judiciary. While the erosion of the military's power should be a gain for democracy, journalists have also ended up in jail on charges of plotting coup d'etats.
Of course, there is a history of coup plotting. And the governmentcharged 86 people with plotting to bring down the government in 2008, as part of its investigation into the Turkish "deep state". But it has been able to use this fear to conflate all opposition with anti-democratic instigation, and crush it ruthlessly. During this time, its vote has risen from 34.28% to 49.90%.
It has also demonstrated confidence in the way it has attempted to deal with the Kurdish question, and in its regional strategy. The government embarked on significant new negotiations with the Kurdish Workers party (PKK) in 2009, partly because it wants to forge a lucrative relationship with the Kurdish regional government in Iraq.
Under the AKP, Turkey has been increasing its relative autonomy from traditional supporters in the White House and Tel Aviv, forging close relations with Iran, Hezbollah and even until recently President Assad of Syria. This has been interpreted, hysterically, as "neo-Ottomanism". It is simply an assertion of Turkey's new power.
Thus strengthened, the government is on the offensive. It has never needed the left or the labour movement, which it has repressed. It no longer needs the liberals, as its attacks on women's reproductive rights, and its imposition of alcohol-free zones, show.
This is the context in which a struggle over a small park in a congested city centre has become an emergency for the regime, and the basis for a potential Turkish spring.

Magda Hassan Wrote:Yes! Trees are worth fighting for. Enough shopping malls already.

Quote:Demonstrators are angry at government plans to cut down trees in Gezi Park, next to Taksim Square, to make way for a replica Ottoman army barracks and a shopping mall. They say it is the last green space of any size in the center of Istanbul.

Quote:Turkey protests rage for second day

Police use water cannon and teargas to disperse demonstrators as protest erupt for second day in Istanbul and Ankara

Conal Urquhart and agencies
guardian.co.uk, Saturday 1 June 2013 11.00 BST

A woman confronts Turkish riot police during violent protests in Istanbul. Photograph: Bulent Kilic/AFP/Getty Images

Violent protests have continued for a second day in Turkey, with police and protesters clashing in Istanbul and the capital Ankara.

In Istanbul, thousands of protesters blocked the bridge over the Bosphorus as they marched from the east to the west side of the city to join demonstrations on Saturday morning.

The unrest began with a peaceful protest against the redevleopment of Gezi park in Istanbul's Taksim Square, but escalated as anger mounted at violent police tactics, including the use of teargas.

The demonstration turned into a wider protest against the country's prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is seen as becoming increasingly authoritarian, and spread to other Turkish cities.

The Turkish Doctors' Association said nearly 1,000 people had been injured in Istanbul on Friday, including six who lost eyes after being hit by gas canisters.

On Saturday, police clashed with several groups of youths trying to reach Taksim. Some threw stones at the security forces.

The marchers who crossed the Bosphorus bridge were met with water cannons and teargas. Police detained a group of protesters who ran into a hotel to shelter from the gas.

In Ankara, thousands gathered at a small park and moved into a popular shopping street. Many were seen drinking in the street in protest at the government restrictions on the sale and advertisement of alcohol. Police broke up groups that tried to march toward the parliament building, a few hundred metres away.

Ozturk Turkdogan, the head of the Turkish Human Rights Association, said hundreds of people in several cities had been injured in the police crackdown and a few hundred people had been arrested. The Dogan news agency said 81 demonstrators were detained in Istanbul.

Turkish police have previously been accused of excessive use of teargas and violence to stop demonstrations, including at this year's May Day rally.

Turkdogan said: "The use of [tear]gas at such proportions is unacceptable. It is a danger to public health and as such is a crime. Unfortunately, there isn't a prosecutor brave enough to stand up to police. The people are standing up against Erdogan who is trying to monopolise power and is meddling in all aspects of life."

There is resentment in secular circles towards Erdogan's broadly Islamic government and towards the prime minister himself, who is known for his abrasive style and intolerance of criticism.

Last week, the government passed legislation preventing the sale and advertisement of alcoholic drinks, alarming secularists. Many felt insulted when he defended the legislation by calling people who drink alcoholics.

Thousands marched through streets in several cities on Friday, calling on Erdogan to resign. Cars honked and residents banged on pots and pans in solidarity with the protesters.