Germany human rights commissioner slams Turkish government violence  against protesters as ‘shocking’.

“I expect the Turkish government to respond to the essentially peaceful demonstrations appropriately and without the use of force,” federal commissioner Markus Löning said in a statement.

“The large number of those arrested and injured is shocking,” he said. Three people have been killed, including a policeman, and Turkey’s national doctors’ union said more than 4,300 have been injured in recent days.

About three million Turks or Germans of Turkish origin live in Germany, making up the country’s largest ethnic minority.

The rallies since May 31 accuse Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of increasingly authoritarian rule and seeking to force conservative Islamic values on Turkey, a mainly Muslim but staunchly secular nation.

Löning called on the Erdogan government “to prevent excessive use of force, to refrain from the continuing action against people who exercise their fundamental rights to freedom of expression and assembly, and to release the detainees immediately”.

“The detention of demonstrators who exchange information on Twitter is also unacceptable and constitutes a restriction on freedom of expression in Turkey. They too must be released immediately.”

Even tourists have kitted themselves out with them in case they get caught up in the unrest. After all, trouble can flare up at any time. It’s hard to gauge the momentum of the clashes between demonstrators and the police.
In Istanbul, the security forces are showing greater restraint after their brutality in the first days of the protests led to an international outcry. The clashes now take place at night in the Istanbul district of Besiktas, where Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has his Istanbul office.

But there are reports of recurring violence in cities like Ankara and Antakya. The police were reported to have been particularly aggressive on Tuesday night, using tear gas and rubber bullets. No one knows how many people have been injured in the protests. Human rights activists and doctors put the figure at 3,000, while the government will only confirm a tenth of that.

[adrotate banner=”64″]