Turkey Unrest:Clash starts between police and protesters evening / Breaking News
A defiant Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a live TV broadcast: “To those who … at Taksim and elsewhere taking part in the demonstrations with sincere feelings: I call on you to leave those places and to end these incidents, and I send you my love.
“But for those who want to continue with the incidents, I say, ‘it’s over’. We won’t show any more tolerance.”
It came after riot police stormed through barricades to clear Istanbul’s main square, prompting fresh clashes with protesters.
The big push by hundreds of officers at 9am local time forced many thousands of demonstrators, who had occupied Taksim Square for more than a week, to flee the area.
Diggers mowed down barricades as police used rubber bullets, water cannon, tear gas and stun grenades to disperse crowds, as activists hit back with petrol bombs, fireworks and stones.
Protesters ran into Gezi Park where many had been camping – and where the demonstration first started on May 31 as a protest against the planned redevelopment of the green space into a shopping centre.
Protesters ran into Gezi Park where many had been camping – and where the demonstration first started on May 31 as a protest against the planned redevelopment of the green space into a shopping centre.
A violent police crackdown then on the protest has turned what started off as a single peaceful demonstration into a national uprising against the Islamist-rooted government of Mr Erdogan that is seen by many as authoritarian.
Smoke could be seen rising from Taksim Square as protesters set fire to tyres and rubbish to force back police lines.
They also took to social media websites like Twitter to call on more waves of protesters to join them for a mass demonstration later this evening.
Reporters in Taksim Square, said: “It would seem that the end of the government’s patience has been reached.
“It is predominantly a young generation who are here … questioning the rule of Prime Minister Erdogan, who still has huge pockets of support … they do not speak for all of Turkey, or indeed Istanbul.
“Protesters have set fire to their barricades. They have been throwing rocks at police and we have seen petrol bombs being thrown.
“What some of the protesters are doing is they are trying to grab canisters of gas and throw them back into the police lines.
“The police say they are removing banners, barricades. They say that if the protesters leave them to do that they won’t touch them.
“But the people here do not believe the police. What is happening is people are coming out from the park and also the surrounding streets in numbers to try to get towards the police lines.
“Once the protesters stop and move back, the police stop too.
“In Gezi Park, protesters are chanting their defiant slogans again, while outside police are clearing sections of Taksim Square.
“The majority of them are there in the central camp and sitting down and trying to keep calm.
“I spoke to one mother yesterday who was determined that they would stay in the park until the end of this operation,” she added.
Demonstrators had earlier manned the barricades and prepared for a possible intervention when officers began massing in the area and replaced activists’ banners with a large Turkish flag and a poster of Mustafa Kemel Ataturk, founder of the republic.
A protester in Ankara said the police clampdown in Taksim Square would make the demonstrators more resolute.
“They chose not to listen to our youth,” Onur Sivav said. “We will always show resistance when they attack us like today and this (protest) will spread all over the country.”
Scenes in Taksim Square on Tuesday morning contrasted starkly with the carnival-like atmosphere over the weekend.
There was a feeling among protesters then that once Mr Erdogan accepted the scale and strength of the nationwide protests, stretching to scores of towns and cities including the capital Ankara, there would be some level of compromise.
Protests initially sparked by development plans for Gezi Park have since widened into anti-government unrest, which has even united Istanbul’s bitterly divided football fans.
The anti-government unrest was sparked by a police crackdown on a local protest over an Istanbul park.
However, that has not happened. He remains defiant and has been rallying his supporters.
Tensions have escalated after his vow to press ahead with the Gezi Park redevelopment and his dismissal of protesters as fringe extremists and their demonstrations as undemocratic plots to topple his government which was elected with 50% support.
Three protesters have died and thousands have been treated for injuries or the effects of tear gas during the protests.
Addressing the Turkish parliament amid the fresh clashes in Istanbul earlier, Mr Erdogan said a policeman had also lost his life in the demonstrations.
The PM had said he would meet the Gezi Park protesters on Wednesday, following a request by some activists.
