Riot police stormed Istanbul’s protest square on Tuesday, firing tear gas and rubber bullets at firework-hurling demonstrators in a fresh escalation of unrest after Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he would meet with protest leaders.
Hundreds of police poured into Taksim Square, the epicentre of nearly two weeks of anti-government demos, warning demonstrators to stay away as bulldozers began clearing the makeshift barriers erected by protesters after police pulled out of the area on June 1.
The police’s return to the square in armoured cars raised the stakes in the nationwide unrest that has posed the fiercest challenge yet to Erdogan and his Islamic-rooted government’s decade-long rule.
Smoke filled the area as police doused protesters with tear gas, urging them to return to adjoining Gezi Park, with some protesters, in helmets and gas masks, throwing molotov cocktails, fireworks and stones in response. Passers-by on their way to work hurried to get out of the way, many coughing and wiping their eyes.
The intervention came just hours after Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc said Erdogan would meet with protest leaders on Wednesday, in his first major concession since the trouble began 12 days ago.
But in a sign of the action to come, he warned: “Illegal demonstrations will not be allowed anymore in Turkey.”