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Turkey PM Mobilizes Tens of Thousands of Supporters as Violence Expands

by TheTower.org Staff |

Violence in Turkey continued over the weekend and into Monday. On Saturday thousands of anti-government demonstrators marched in the streets overnight Saturday, and observers noted via social media that demonstrations beginning Monday evening were louder than ever.

The protesters were joined, importantly, by opposition members of parliament and public unions. On Monday key unions all over the country called for a work stoppage:

The Confederation of Public Workers’ Unions (KESK) and Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions (DISK), along with three professional organisations, have announced what they call a one-day work stoppage to demand an end to “police violence”. The unions have called for a march and a rally in Istanbul on Monday afternoon. Lawyers from the Turkish bar association say that close to 500 people have been detained as part of the police operation against the demonstrators.

German officials, including the country’s chancellor Angela Merkel, also expressed outrage over the violence.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan brushed off objections. Instead he mobilized on Sunday tens of thousands of his supporters in a show of popular force:

Some 10 kilometers away, in a much larger park, buses unloaded scores of supporters of Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) for an election rally billed as a show of strength in response to the unrest. “May the hands that touch the police be broken” and “The people are here, where are the looters?” they chanted, using one of Erdogan’s description of the demonstrators. The defiant slogans came a day after the AKP held a similar election rally in the capital Ankara, where Erdogan had some combative words for the protest movement which poses the biggest challenge yet to his Islamic-rooted government’s decade-long rule.

The violence has caused five confirmed deaths, and thousands have been injured. Though the democratic legitimacy of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) government has been eroded domestically and internationally, analysts continue to be skeptical that there is any party in the country capable of posing a credible electoral challenge to the AKP.

[Photo: bbc.co.uk]

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