Epress.am News from Armenia
As was expected, Turkish police intervened with tear gas and water cannon to disperse protesters in İstanbul on Saturday who had gathered to mark the anniversary of the anti-government Gezi demonstrations of last year, reports Today's Zaman.
Istanbul had the look of a city under siege as public transport was closed by authorities in an effort by the government to block access to Taksim Square, where the protesters wanted to mark the anniversary of the 2013 demonstrations.
Seven people died in last year's demonstrations, most of them due to police violence. Protesters on Saturday gathered not only in Istanbul but also in many other cities to commemorate the dead, in addition to marking the demonstrations' anniversary.
The Turkish police force was criticized for excessive violence both last year and this, while Prime Minister Erdoğan last year praised the crackdown, saying the police suppression of the protest had been “heroic.” The protests, the biggest unrest against a government in the history of the Turkish Republic and the first serious challenge to Prime Minister Erdoğan's rule, have caused a deeper divide in the already polarized nation. Erdoğan has accused the protesters of terrorism and attempting to overthrow his government.
At least 120 people were detained in Saturday's clashes, according to a statement from Istanbul's police chief. Most newspapers reported that about a dozen people were injured, although no official figures were available. Authorities said that 25,000 police were deployed in and around Taksim on Saturday. Police helicopters circled the skies. There were also hundreds of plainclothes officers in the area.
In neighborhoods across Istanbul on Saturday, residents opened their windows and banged pots and pans, a traditional form of dissent that was employed throughout the Gezi protest.
Read the rest of the article here.