Published May 31, 2013
Associated Press
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A man reacts as riot police use tear gas and pressurized water to quash a peaceful demonstration by hundreds of people staging a sit-in protest to try and prevent the demolition of trees at an Istanbul park, Turkey, Friday, May 31, 2013. Police moved in at dawn Friday to disperse the crowd on the fourth day of the protest against a contentious government plan to revamp Istanbul's main square, Taksim. (AP Photo)The Associated Press
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Women try to protect themselves as riot police use tear gas and pressurized water to quash a peaceful demonstration by hundreds of people staging a sit-in protest to try and prevent the demolition of trees at an Istanbul park, Turkey, Friday, May 31, 2013. A number of protesters were injured. Police moved in at dawn Friday to disperse the crowd on the fourth day of the protest against a contentious government plan to revamp Istanbul's main square, Taksim. The protesters are demanding that the square's park, Gezi, is protected. (AP Photo)The Associated Press
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Riot police use tear gas and pressurized water to quash a demonstration by hundreds of people trying to prevent the demolition of trees at an Istanbul park, Turkey, Friday, May 31, 2013. Police moved in at dawn Friday to disperse the crowd on the fourth day of the protest against a contentious government plan to revamp Istanbul's main square, Taksim. (AP Photo)The Associated Press
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A man helps an injured woman as riot police use tear gas and pressurized water to disperse protesters staging a sit-in protest to try and prevent the demolition of trees at an Istanbul park, Turkey, Friday, May 31, 2013. A number of protesters were injured. Police moved in at dawn Friday to disperse the crowd on the fourth day of the protest against a contentious government plan to revamp Istanbul's main square, Taksim. The protesters are demanding that the square's park, Gezi, is protected. (AP Photo)The Associated Press
ISTANBUL – Riot police used tear gas and pressurized water in a dawn raid on Friday to rout a peaceful demonstration by hundreds of people staging a sit-in to prevent the uprooting of trees at an Istanbul park.
Several protesters were injured when a wall they climbed collapsed during a police chase, and a prominent journalist was hospitalized after being hit in the head by a tear gas canister, the private Dogan news agency reported.
Police moved in to disperse the crowd on the fourth day of the protest against a government plan to revamp Istanbul's main square, Taksim. Officers then clashed with angry demonstrators in surrounding areas.
The protesters are demanding that the square's park, Gezi, be protected. Many also aired grievances against Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Islamic-rooted government which has been displaying increasingly authoritarian and uncompromising tendencies in its third successive term in office.
Last week, the government enacted a law restricting the sale and advertising of alcohol which has alarmed secular Turks who fear an encroachment on more liberal lifestyles.
Earlier this week, the government went ahead with a ground-breaking ceremony for the construction of a disputed third bridge across the Bosporus Strait which some say will destroy the few remaining green areas of the city. It also named the bridge after a controversial Ottoman sultan believed to have ordered a massacre of a minority Shiite Muslim group, instead of choosing a more unitifying figure.
Protesters in Gezi Park were seen holding up a large poster with a caricature depicting Erdogan as an Ottoman sultan with a caption that read: "The people won't yield to you."
Erdogan dismissed the protesters' demands for the park's protection, saying the government would go ahead with renovation plans "no matter what they do." The forestry minister said more trees would be planted than those uprooted at Gezi and has defended the government's environmental record.
The dawn raid was the latest in a series of aggressive crackdown on protests. Human rights activists frequently accuse Turkish police of using inordinate force to break up protests and of excessively using tear gas and pepper spray against protesters.
On Friday, demonstrators affected by the gas sought shelter at a luxury hotel at Taksim and were tended by guests. Police removed tents and demonstrators' other belongings and mounted barricades around the park.
31 May, 2013
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Source: http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNEk0Xx_7nc3pS2ETAQlA7W1wolcsg&url=http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/05/31/turkish-police-stage-dawn-raid-to-break-up-peaceful-sit-in-to-protect-istanbul/
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