Riot police use tear gas and pressurized water to quash with unacceptable violence a peaceful demonstration at an Istanbul Taksim square park.

Riot police used tear gas and pressurized water to disperse people staging a sit-in to prevent the uprooting of trees at a park in Istanbul, Turkey.

Several protesters were injured when a wall they climbed collapsed during a police chase and a prominent journalist was taken to hospital after being hit in the head by a tear gas canister, according to reports.

Police moved in to disperse the crowd on the fourth day of the protest against a government plan to revamp Istanbul’s main square, Taksim. Officers then clashed with demonstrators in surrounding areas.

The protesters are demanding that the square’s park, Taksim Gezi, be protected.

Protesters in Gezi Park were seen holding up a large poster with a caricature depicting Turkish prime minister Recap Tayyip Erdogan as an Ottoman sultan with a caption that read: “The people won’t yield to you.”

Erdogan dismissed the protesters’ demands for the park’s protection, saying the government would go ahead with renovation plans “no matter what they do”.

The forestry minister said more trees would be planted than those uprooted at Gezi and has defended the government’s environmental record.

The raid was the latest in a series of crackdowns on protests. Human rights activists frequently accuse Turkish police of using inordinate force to break up protests and of excessively using tear gas and pepper spray against protesters.

On Friday, demonstrators affected by the gas sought shelter at a luxury hotel at Taksim. Police removed tents and demonstrators’ other belongings and mounted barricades around the park.

One protester,  an urban researcher and labor activist, said police used both pepper spray and tear gas as people were leaving the area. “The resistance for democracy and human rights will not be terminated,” she said. “We are determined to continue our struggle against a government determined to crush each and every opposition, a government that cannot tolerate even a peaceful opposition for saving trees.”

The governing Justice and Development Party, known as AKP and with roots in Islamists politics, has won three successive elections after delivering strong economic growth and political stability. Despite the protests and increasing ire of many secular-minded Turks, Mr. Erdogan’s government still retains strong popularity across much of Turkey.

Demonstrators had been joined by a handful of lawmakers from opposition parties, who vowed not to let the police move them from the park.

But the police moved forcefully at dawn, deploying tear gas and water cannons to evict the protesters and seal off the park. Protesters regrouped on a main shopping street close to the square, and were again pushed back by police. Turkish police routinely use tear gas and water cannon to break up demonstrators.

 

Prime Minister Erdogan on Wednesday had said that the government will press ahead with the project.

“They can do what they want. We’ve made out decision and we will do as we have decided,” Mr. Erdogan said, as he cut the ribbon to start construction on the third Bosporus bridge, another landmark infrastructure project ushered in by his ruling AKP.

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