Police fires tear gas during an operation to evacuate the Taksim Square in Istanbul Tuesday, June 11, 2013. Hundreds of police in riot gear forced through barricades in the square early Tuesday, pushing many of the protesters who had occupied the square for more than a week into a nearby park. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)
Police fires tear gas during an operation to evacuate the Taksim Square in Istanbul Tuesday, June 11, 2013. Hundreds of police in riot gear forced through barricades in the square early Tuesday, pushing many of the protesters who had occupied the square for more than a week into a nearby park. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)

Hundreds of Turkish riot police stormed early on Tuesday into Taksim Square, the central Istanbul plaza that has been occupied by anti-government protesters for almost two weeks.

Officers fired water cannon, tear gas and rubber bullets, witnesses said, prompting many protesters to retreat into nearby Gezi Park. Other activists reportedly threw stones and fire bombs.

Authorities said that the aim of the operation was to take down banners protesters had attached to a statue and overlooking building, not to disperse the crowd.

The banners made the square look as though it was under “occupation” and were “negatively affecting our country’s image in the eyes of the world opinion and leading to reaction from within the society,” Istanbul’s governor, Huseyin Avni Mutlu, said in a statement. They were replaced by a large Turkish flag and a portrait of the founder of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.

“We don’t want to intervene. We don’t want to harm you,” police told the crowd via loudspeaker. “Let’s quit fighting.”

Protesters remained wary, however, according to the Guardian’s correspondent on the scene. “The police have made public announcements saying they are not going to raid the park, they are just going to clean up the square. But right now they just teargassed the front steps of Gezi Park. […] It is an atmosphere of massive confusion,” correspondent Constanze Letsch reported.

Some observers saw the police’s arrival as a show of force intended to intimidate protesters ahead of Wednesday’s scheduled talks between Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the organizers of the original Gezi Park sit-in.

Plans to develop the city green space triggered the first protests, which rapidly swelled into nationwide rallies against Erdogan and his government when police were sent in to disperse crowds in Gezi Park. Three people have died across Turkey and more than 5,000 were injured.

The government has blamed the “illegal” protests on thugs and foreign provocateurs.

This article originally was published at Global Post.

Comments