Baku-APA. The government has announced that it will not back down on its plans to build a shopping mall and barracks in place of Gezi Park in Ä°stanbul, and its seriousness was clarified to anyone who had any doubts on Friday when at least 12 protestors at Gezi Park were seriously wounded, APA reports quoting TodaysZaman.com.
Demonstrators, reaching as many as 5,000 on Thursday night, have been keeping watch at Gezi Park, where the Ä°stanbul Metropolitan Municipality is planning a project to rebuild an Ottoman barracks that existed at the site at some point and a shopping center. The demonstrators occupied the park for the past four days and nights in order to stop bulldozers from removing the park's trees, and the police have been using tear gas and pressurized water to disperse them. However, the already tough approach reached a new peak on Thursday and Friday morning, when at least 12 people, including a deputy, were seriously injured, according to figures from the Istanbul Chamber of Doctors.
The police, during their intervention on the early hours of Friday, destroyed tents put up by demonstrators and used pepper spray, seriously injuring a 23-year-old protestor. The protestor was kicked by police officers while holding onto a tree trying to regain his balance after being disoriented by pepper spray.
Many civil society organizations and intellectuals condemned the use of excessive force against the demonstrators, who have remained peaceful.
Amnesty International said the Turkish authorities must order police to stop using excessive force against peaceful protesters in Ä°stanbul and immediately investigate alleged abuses.
Senai Demirci, a medical doctor and the author of several books on religious topics and a well-liked opinion leader, referred to the police intervention as an “uncontrolled and disproportionate use of power.” He said the Ä°stanbul Municipality had a good project and it was right in wanting to continue with the project. “But with the use of excessive force, the police turned this righteous position into a wrong one.” He said instead of provoking the demonstrators any further, the authorities should try to cool down the fury. “It is not enough to be right. It is also important to make the right intervention at the right time. Here, it is obvious that the issue is not about the trees. Many other parks were destroyed, but these people weren't there. This has turned into a settling of accounts between the government and the opposition by using the trees. I am pretty sure that the project is good, but I think the intervention is wrong and not well placed.” He said even though demonstrators might be wrong, they had to be heard and reasoned with. “Instead of fanning this fury any further, some sort of a cool-down is needed. It is like a high fever right now, and in social issues, such fevers definitely need be decreased first. The protestors have a political stance here, but political stances should also be understood and neutralized.”
The secretary general of the Organization of Human Rights and Solidarity for Oppressed People, MAZLUM-DER, Üstün Bol said the project was unacceptable in the first place. “We are speaking of removing trees and building malls, and this is very problematic. We don't see people independent of nature. This is also a part of town where there are many memories for every resident, and we think such a place is valuable. We don't think administrators have the right to carry on with such a project without consulting the residents.”
He also said there was no sense in attacking the protestors, who were mostly peaceful. “Those opposing the felling of trees were involved in passive resistance; they sat down and read books in protest of the destruction of trees. We strongly condemn such excessive action as gassing people who are peacefully sitting and reading.”
Bol also said he had doubts that any legal action will follow the disproportionate use of force. “No government is sacred. They should sit down and think [of the pepper gas policy] not just for Gezi but also retrospectively for past events where such methods were employed against harmless demonstrators.”
Possibility of post-violence action
However, Public Chief Prosecutor -- commonly called ombudsman in Turkish -- Nihat ÖmeroÄŸlu said his office would look into the incidents in the presence of a complaint and in the absence of a prior judicial investigation into the violent crackdown.
Head of the Human Rights Association (Ä°HD) Öztürk TürkdoÄŸan said what has gone on in Taksim cannot merely be described as use of asymmetric power. “This is a typical police-state practice. A typical manifestation of authoritarianism. The people in government say we have taken a decision, and don't recognize the rights of others showing their democratic reactions against such a decision.” He also said the police force could act this way solely because of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip ErdoÄŸan, whose authoritarian personality reflects on the rest of the country. “What is the chief prosecutor doing in Ä°stanbul? The police are committing crimes against citizens in Ä°stanbul. The borders of power blur in authoritarian countries. We are faced with a single source of power.”
He also said the police committed a hate crime. “Dispersing people at a scene is one thing, hunting them down later is different. It shows that the police are acting with hatred toward the demonstrators. This is a very serious situation, sparked by direct orders from Ankara.” He also said it was extremely odd for the prime minister to be involved in the affairs of a city. “If he is that interested, then he should quit his job and become the Ä°stanbul mayor.”
Peter Stano, spokesperson for EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Füle, also condemned excessive use of force. He said in a statement regarding the clashes at Taksim: “The European Commission is concerned about the recurring clashes between police and demonstrators in Istanbul.
We condemn all excessive and disproportionate use of force.
We recall the importance of guaranteeing fundamental rights, including freedom of expression and freedom of assembly. Any limitations should be strictly within the limits as defined by the ECHR and the jurisprudence of the ECtHR.”
Amnesty International released a statement on Friday, recalling that at least one demonstrator has had to have surgery due to an injury. Amnesty International Turkey said in the statement posted on its website that the decision to disperse a demonstration should always be the last resort, and noted that international standards dictate that minimal use of force should be employed while dispersing a crowd. It also said the police officers responsible for the incidents at Gezi should be tried for their actions.
Other condemnations
About 200 academics from BoÄŸaziçi University released a statement on Friday afternoon, condemning the police violence towards the Gezi protestors. The signatories also demanded an end to the park's destruction. “We condemn the unreasonable violence exercised on the citizens trying to protect the trees and demand an immediate end to all destructive activity,” it said.
A large number of celebrities and public figures condemned the violence in tweets. Ahmet Ümit, a well-known detective novelist living in Turkey, said: “Cruelty is freely roaming the streets of Ä°stanbul. People defending nature are being tortured. These will not be forgotten.”
There were also reactions from owners of retail chains. Selami Sarı, head of the Herry clothing brand, was quoted by the Hürriyet newspaper's website as saying: “I wouldn't be part of such a shopping mall. I am from the Black Sea, I am in love with greenery. People are reacting like this to protect the trees, I won't be part of any shopping mall at Gezi Park or the Emek cinema.”
AyÅŸen Zamanpur, CEO of Silk&Cashmere, said: “We can't just close our eyes regarding an issue with so much sensitivity. We don't have to be there. I have been looking for a store in BeyoÄŸlu for seven years, but I won't open at Gezi or Emek.”
Head of the Orka Group Executive Board Süleyman OrakçıoÄŸlu, owner of well-known brands such as Damat in Turkey, said he had to see the finished project first. “They are saying the historical reality of the place will be restored. But in general, I think that shopping malls should not be inside the city because they cause a lot of infrastructural and superstructure problems.” Tweets from the Boyner Group also indicated they wouldn't want to open a store at a shopping mall at Gezi.
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