Battles as riot police storm Istanbul barricades

The raid, which came on the 12th day of nationwide protests, sparked clashes with groups of protesters well into the afternoon. Many other protesters fled into the adjacent Gezi Park, where hundreds have been camping out to stop developers from cutting down trees in the park. As police moved in, bulldozers began demolishing the barricades and the makeshift shelters.

A peaceful demonstration against the park’s redevelopment has turned into a test of prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s authority and a rejection of what some see as his autocratic ways.

Mr Erdogan, however, made it clear that he had come to the end of his patience with the protesters, whom he accused of sullying Turkey’s image abroad.

“To those who ... are 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.’ As of now we have no tolerance for them,” he said, speaking in the capital, Ankara as the raid was taking place.

“Not only will we end the actions, we will be at the necks of the provocateurs and terrorists and no one will get away with it,” he added.

The unrest – which has spread to 78 cities across Turkey – has been inspired in part by what some see as Mr Erdogan’s increasingly authoritarian style of governing and his perceived attempts to impose a religious and conservative lifestyle in a country with secular laws.

Mr Erdogan, a devout Muslim, says he is committed to Turkey’s secular laws and denies charges of autocracy.

Yet as he defended his tough stance, he gave critics little hope of a shift in his position.

“Were we supposed to kneel before them and say please remove your pieces of rags? They can call me harsh, but this Tayyip Erdogan won’t change,” he said.

He was referring to the banners and posters that activists had hung from a building and a monument at Taksim Square, which police removed.

The clashes extended to the very edge of Gezi Park, with tear gas covering its sides, even though authorities had promised not to go into the park. Several people were taken on stretchers to a first-
aid station manned by protesters before being taken to ambulances. Others were carried, overcome by tear gas.

The Turkish Human Rights Foundation raised the number of deaths in more than a week of protests to four. It said a man who had died of a heart attack days ago had been exposed to “too much” tear gas.

Two demonstrators and a policeman were also killed and 5,000 protesters have been treated for injuries or the effects of tear gas. The government says 600 police officers have also been injured.

Throughout the protests Mr Erdogan has struck a defiant tone, vowing to press ahead with the Taksim redevelopment plans, dismissing the protesters as extremists and the protests as undemocratic plots to topple his government, which was elected with 50 percent support in 2011.

He insisted again that the protests were part of a conspiracy against his government. The protesters, he said, “are being used by some financial institutions, the interest rate lobby and media groups to (harm) Turkey’s economy and (scare away) investments”.

He added: “I want everyone there to see the big picture, to understand the game that is being played and I especially invite them to evacuate (Taksim and Gezi Park). I expect that of them as their prime minister.”