Police Fire Water Cannons to Quell Protest as Baton-Wielding Shop Owners Threaten Reporters in Istanbul

15 July 2013 Police have fired water can­nons and tear gas to the sev­er­al thou­sand pro­test­ers gath­ered on Istanbul’s İstikl­al Avenue to protest a mid­night bill adopt­ed this week by the Par­lia­ment which curbed the super­vi­sion of the Cham­ber of Archi­tects and Engi­neers (TMMOB) i

15 July 2013 Police have fired water can­nons and tear gas to the sev­er­al thou­sand pro­test­ers gath­ered on Istanbul’s İstikl­al Avenue to protest a mid­night bill adopt­ed this week by the Par­lia­ment which curbed the super­vi­sion of the Cham­ber of Archi­tects and Engi­neers (TMMOB) in all urban projects, giv­ing full author­i­ty to the Envi­ron­ment and Urban Plan­ning Min­istry. Some shop own­ers also threat­en­ing­ly attacked with batons reporters an pro­test­ers chased the pro­test­ers into the side streets by the police.

Mem­bers of TMMOB, of whom many were among the most active lead­ers of the Tak­sim Sol­i­dar­i­ty Plat­form that ini­ti­at­ed the protests over the demo­li­tion of Gezi Park in Istan­bul, as well as many pro­test­ers, had joined the demon­stra­tion in Galatasaray Square that start­ed at 5:30 p.m.

How­ev­er, police did not allow the group to walk to Tak­sim Square after the Governor’s Office refused to grant per­mis­sion. Police demand­ed the pro­test­ers to end the demon­stra­tion after the state­ment, warn­ing them that a dis­per­sion by force would be car­ried out against them if they failed to do so. Most of the pro­test­ers dis­persed while the police chased them into the side streets, cut­ting off some of the pedes­tri­an entrances to the İstikl­al Avenue.

Shop own­ers with batons attack pro­test­ers, reporters

After scat­ter­ing, some of the pro­test­ers start­ed to regroup on the İstikl­al Avenue. Water can­non trucks and panz­ers were also dis­patched to the area. Live footage showed riot police using tear gas in the side streets, while reports said that they also fired rub­ber bul­lets to pro­test­ers.

Mean­while, a group of baton-wield­ing shop own­ers attacked pro­test­ers run­ning from the police. They also threat­ened reporters, try­ing to pre­vent them in vain from film­ing and tak­ing their pic­tures.

Police also detained pro­test­ers, includ­ing art schol­ar Osman Erden. Erden was seen bleed­ing from the mouth while he was tak­en into cus­tody.

‘No to crazy projects’

Ear­li­er, a spokesper­son for the group slammed the mid­night bill, say­ing the gov­ern­ment want­ed to “silence” archi­tects and engi­neers to pre­vent hur­dles in grandiose urban projects. “They don’t want us because we are against [Istanbul’s] third bridge, because we said no to Canal Istan­bul,” he said, refer­ring to the mas­sive-scale con­struc­tion works brand­ed as “crazy projects” by Prime Min­is­ter Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Dur­ing his speech, the crowd also chant­ed “no to the third bridge, no to canal Istan­bul, no to crazy projects,” hint­ing that the demands of the pro­test­ers could widen.

The spokesper­son also recalled that many mem­bers of the Tak­sim Sol­i­dar­i­ty Plat­form and oth­er civ­il groups were harassed and ill-treat­ed while in cus­tody, includ­ing Mücel­la Yapıcı, the gen­er­al sec­re­tary of TMMOB’s Istan­bul office.

“We won’t sur­ren­der,” he said.

Pro­test­ers were also seen hold­ing pic­tures of Ali İsm­ail Kork­mez, the fifth Gezi pro­test­er to have died, who passed away this week after suc­cumb­ing to his injuries, inflict­ed by assailants who beat him with sticks.

Ear­li­er, moth­ers whose chil­dren had been detained orga­nized a sit-in in GalatasaraySquare, call­ing for the end of arbi­trary deten­tions.

Gezi Park was opened on July 8 after being in police lock­down for more than three weeks. The open­ing of the park had caused inci­dents as police inter­vened once again against pro­test­ers, tak­ing into cus­tody 50 peo­ple, includ­ing a num­ber of NGO mem­bers.