http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-06-03/chart-day-turkish-uprising
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 06/03/2013 17:15 -0400
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/europe/2013/06/201363182732565597.html
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/public-sector-workers-to-go-on-strike-union-.aspx?pageID=238&nID=48147&NewsCatID=341
The Confederation of Public Sector Trade Unions (KESK) has announced a decision to strike starting at noon tomorrow, in response to the government’s heavy-handed response to the Taksim Gezi Park protests in a move that could see hundreds of thousands of public servants walk off the job.
The strike, which was initially set to protest against the upcoming changes in the public sector workers’ law, was moved ahead to June 4 due to the ongoing Gezi Park protests, while KESK called for solidarity from all other unions.
The strike will now aim at a “democratic Turkey” instead of raising concerns over legal changes, according to a statement made by KESK General Secretary İsmail Hakkı Tombul, adding that around 250,000 public servants will be dressed in black and sport black ribbons at work tomorrow before stopping at noon.
KESK will be meeting with representatives from the Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions (DİSK), the Turkish Medical Association (TTB), the Turkish Engineers Association and the Turkish Architects Associations later today to further discuss the strikes.
The unions are expected to make a decision this afternoon.
and....
http://rt.com/news/turkey-police-brutality-reports-148/
Chart Of The Day: The Turkish Uprising
With the biggest drop in Turkish stocks in a decade and the biggest jump in Turkish bond yields on record, the troubled nation finally made some mainstream media screens today. As we have noted here and here most recently, the social unrest is escalating rapidly, as Stratfor notes, the protests grew rapidly over the weekend and spread quickly to other major regions and cities in the nation. The largest protests, in Istanbul and Izmir, brought out predominantly young protesters in the tens of thousands. These protests will be highly significant if they grow to the hundreds of thousands, include a wider demographic and geographically extend to areas with traditionally strong support for the ruling party.
Via Stratfor,
On May 28, a small group of mostly young environmentalists gathered in Istanbul's Taksim Square for a sit-in to protest a planned demolition of walls, uprooting of trees and the perceived desecration of historical sites in the square's Gezi Park. The initially peaceful demonstration turned violent the night of May 30, when police tried to break up what had grown to more than 100 protesters. The environmental protesters were joined the next day by high-level representatives of the ruling Justice and Development Party's main opposition, the secular Republican People's Party. The message of the protests soon evolved from saving Gezi Park's trees to condemning Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his party for a litany of complaints. Anti-government chants included "Down with the dictator," "Tayyip, resign," and "Unite against fascism."
The protests grew rapidly when the weekend began, with more than 10,000 people gathering in Taksim Square on June 1. By that night, protests had reportedly spread to the cities of Izmir, Eskisehir, Mugla, Yalova, Antalya, Bolu, Adana, Ankara, Kayseri and Konya. Many of the areas where protests were reported are also areas where the Republican People's Party would be expected to bring out a large number of supporters. Konya, Kayseri and Ankara -- strong areas of support for the Justice and Development Party -- were notable exceptions. The largest protests, in Istanbul and Izmir, brought out predominantly young protesters in the tens of thousands. These protests will be highly significant if they grow to the hundreds of thousands, include a wider demographic and geographically extend to areas with traditionally strong support for the ruling party. However, though dissent is rising, at present Erdogan and the Justice and Development Party still have substantial support among the more conservative, rural Turks who make up the bulk of the country's population.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/europe/2013/06/201363182732565597.html
Turkey protests turn violent for fourth day |
Riot police fire tear gas to disperse crowds in Istanbul and Ankara as PM accuses "dissidents" of inciting protests.
Last Modified: 03 Jun 2013 22:29
     |
| Riot police are back on the streets of Turkey's largest city, Istanbul, as anti-government protests continue for a fourth night in several cities. Thousands of people gathered on Monday in the city's central Taksim Square, where protests prompted by redevelopment plans for the area began last week. Al Jazeera's Anita McNaught said a helicopter with a searchlight was hovering over the crowds and a tear-gas canister had been thrown into the square, raising tension where protests during the day were peaceful with protesters waving flags, dancing and chanting slogans. A few miles away, police fired tear gas to disperse protesters massing near Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's office in the city centre and the nearby stadium of Besiktas football team. Police also clashed with protesters in the capital, Ankara, from where Al Jazeera's Idil Gungor reported that police fired tear gas and used pressurised water against demonstrators who chanted slogans. Most of the people in the crowd were secondary-school students, she said. Medical sources say hundreds of people have been injured in four days of clashes, and rights groups have accused police of using excessive force. Erdogan said on Monday the situation in Turkey was "now calming down" and accused political "dissidents" of inciting the protests. "On my return from this visit, the problems will be solved," he said in Rabat, Morocco. "The Republican People's Party [CHP] and other dissidents have a hand in these events." Erdogan is set to return to Turkey on Thursday after an official four-day tour of North Africa. "Today the people on the street across Turkey are not exclusively from the CHP, but from all ideologies and from all parties," Mehmet Akif Hamzacebi, a senior party member, said. The unrest erupted on Friday when trees were torn down at a park in Taksim Square under government plans to redevelop the area, but widened into a broad show of defiance against the governing, Islamist-rooted AK Party. Erdogan has overseen a transformation in Turkey during his decade in power, turning its once crisis-prone economy into the fastest-growing in Europe. He remains by far Turkey's most popular politician, but critics point to what they see as his authoritarianism and religiously conservative meddling in private lives in the secular republic. Tighter restrictions on alcohol sales and warnings against public displays of affection in recent weeks have also provoked protests. |
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/public-sector-workers-to-go-on-strike-union-.aspx?pageID=238&nID=48147&NewsCatID=341
Turkish public sector workers to go on strike: Union
The strike will now aim at a “democratic Turkey” instead of raising concerns over legal changes, according to a statement made by KESK General Secretary İsmail Hakkı Tombul. Hürriyet Daily News photo by Selahattin Sönmez
The strike, which was initially set to protest against the upcoming changes in the public sector workers’ law, was moved ahead to June 4 due to the ongoing Gezi Park protests, while KESK called for solidarity from all other unions.
The strike will now aim at a “democratic Turkey” instead of raising concerns over legal changes, according to a statement made by KESK General Secretary İsmail Hakkı Tombul, adding that around 250,000 public servants will be dressed in black and sport black ribbons at work tomorrow before stopping at noon.
KESK will be meeting with representatives from the Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions (DİSK), the Turkish Medical Association (TTB), the Turkish Engineers Association and the Turkish Architects Associations later today to further discuss the strikes.
The unions are expected to make a decision this afternoon.
and....
http://rt.com/news/turkey-police-brutality-reports-148/
Turkey police brutality: Cops attack protesters, use gallons of tear gas (PHOTOS)
Published time: June 03, 2013 09:19
Edited time: June 03, 2013 10:04
Edited time: June 03, 2013 10:04
Riot police use a water cannon to disperse anti-government protesters in front of Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's Istanbul office June 1, 2013 (Reuters / Murad Sezer)
The brutal suppression of a peaceful environmental sit-in in Istanbul ignited a nationwide protest against the Turkish government. Allegations of police crossing the line between keeping the order and oppression are mushrooming in the social media.
Over the days of clashes with the protesters, Turkish police excessively used water cannons and tear gas, drawing condemnation from Amnesty International and calls for restraint from Turkey’s closest allies.
“The use of tear gas against peaceful protestors and in confined spaces where it may constitute a serious danger to health is unacceptable, breaches international human rights standards and must be stopped immediately,” Amnesty stressed in a statement, calling on the Turkish government to investigate all reports of abuse.
Photos and video footage of officers clubbing activists and spraying them with irritants at point-blank range are circulating across social media, further inflaming the Turkish riots. The online anger is fueled by the dismissal of the protesters as “simple looters” by the government and the apparent downplaying of the importance of the protest in the official media.
The Turkish government insists that the protests are irrelevant and inspired by extremist forces. As he was leaving the country on Monday for a North Africa visit, Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said that the Turkish intelligence services are investigating possible foreign links to the weekend riots. He also said the protest have nothing to do with the Gezi Park sit-ins.
Riot police use tear gas to disperse the crowd during an anti-government protests at Taksim Square in central Istanbul May 31, 2013 (Reuters / Murad Sezer)
Orchun Sunear, a musician, told RT that he had seen a lot of people being seriously hurt by police, and even witnessed people being crushed by a police tank. A friend of his called Lednah, also a musician, is in a coma after being caught up in the crackdown.
“My father, and grandmother have never seen anything like this. In three generations the police have never behaved like this. This is not normal in Turkey and I don’t understand why this is happening,” he said.
Turkish Interior Minister Muammer Güler said that 115 police officers and 58 protesters had been injured in the clashes as of Sunday. Amnesty International said the victims of the clashes are numbered in their hundreds, while rumors in social media claim that more than 1,000 people suffered.
There are also claims of at least two protester deaths at the hands of the police. The government says those reports are lies, while Erdogan branded social media “the worst menace to society."
Widely-circulated graffiti in the capital, Ankara, describes the information stand-off: “Revolution will not be televised, it will be tweeted”.
Turkish riot police use water cannon to disperse demonstrators during a protest against the destruction of trees in a park brought about by a pedestrian project, in Taksim Square in central Istanbul May 31, 2013 (Reuters / Osman Orsal)
Protesters attack an armoured police vehicle during a protest against Turkey's Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and his ruling AK Party in central Istanbul June 2, 2013 (Reuters / Murad Sezer)
Protestors take care of an injured demonstrator during a demonstration in support of protests in Istanbul and against the Turkish Prime Minister and his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), in Ankara, on June 1, 2013 (AFP Photo / Adem Altan)
Photo from twitter.com user @CemSa
An injured demonstrator lies on the ground on June 1, 2013 during a march to parliament and the prime minister's office in Ankara (AFP Photo / STR)
“This is about my ruling party, myself and the looming municipality elections in Istanbul and efforts to make the AK Party lose votes here,” Erdogan insisted, adding that the use of Twitter to instigate protests was proof that the 
By the end of Sunday there are
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