Turkey Sees another Night of Violent Protests

The protests in Turkey began on May 28 spread quickly, engulfing a number of major cities. Photo by EPA/BGNES

The protests in the Turkish capital Ankara continued on Thursday evening with police using water cannons and teargas to disperse the participants.

Demonstrators continued to raise slogans for the resignation of the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party. Police acted with force after the protesters did not respond to calls to end the rally.

The current assessment of the mass protests in Turkey in the last three weeks is 4 dead people and 7822 injured. Suleyman Celebi, a deputy from the main opposition Republican People's Party (NRP,) disclosed the data.

59 people are severely injured, 6 of them are people with immediate threat to life (4 people in Istanbul, one person in Ankara and one in Eskisehir.). There are 100 people with head injuries, 11 people who have lost their eyesight, and a person with removed spleen.

Celebi submitted a draft law to erect a monument of the victims of the mass demonstrations. The memorial will be built on the place of the tent camp in "Gezi" Park on "Taksim" Square in Istanbul.

The trade unions in Turkey have decided to create a task force to fully investigate the brutal police actions in the destruction of the camps in "Gezi" Park. The group includes representatives of the academia and prominent lawyers. The Confederation of Revolutionary Trade Unions of Workers in Turkey (DISK), the Confederation of Trade Unions of Public Sector Employees (KESK), the Union of Chambers of Turkish Engineers and Architects (TMMOB), Turkish Medical Association (TTB,) and the Turkish Dental Association (TDB) are behind the group.

Meanwhile the "standing" protest initiated by performance artist Erdem Gunduz has been taken up by hundreds of anti-government demonstrators and spread to several Turkish cities.

Gunduz appeared in Istanbul's Taksim Square on Monday evening and stood there silent for several hours until when police moved in.

His protest quickly captured the imagination of the protest movement. Hundreds of people in Istanbul and Ankara took up the protest on Tuesday.

The protests began on May 28 spread quickly, engulfing a number of major cities.
The rallies eventually turned into demonstrations against the authoritarian and Islamic-leaning policy of the Turkish government of Erdogan.

The police crackdown on protesters in Istanbul, Ankara, and other towns and cities has drawn international concern, especially from Europe.

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