Taksim Square - Turkey Spring; Violent clashes in Istanbul

The tension rose a notch in the night. Turkish police used tear gas Saturday morning near the Taksim Square in central Istanbul to disperse hundreds of protesters in second day of violent protests against the Turkish government..

Other incidents reported to Besiktas

After a long face-to-face with protesters who held a barricade in the Istiqlal Avenue, a pedestrian shopping street that leads to Taksim Square, the police fired a volley of tear gas to disperse the crowd . Other incidents were reported earlier in the morning in the Besiktas district, where a group of protesters came from the Anatolian side of the Turkish metropolis crossed a bridge over the dam and was dispersed by the police, Turkish media reported.

The protest, one of the largest directed against the Islamic-conservative power since taking office in 2002, is part of a demonstration against an urban development project challenged in Istanbul and several dozen wounded dozens Friday in Istanbul.

By late morning, the main roads leading to Taksim Square were barred by large police forces. After a day and a night of riots, this place famous for being one of the traditional appointment of protest in Istanbul, and the surrounding streets were littered with debris Saturday morning and shops have reopened their doors very carefully to residents and tourists. Dozens of protesters were injured in clashes on Friday, citing Amnesty International for its part "over a hundred" injured.

Political protest

The authorities gave no accurate count. Friday late afternoon, the governor of the city Huseyin Avni Mutlu merely indicate that 12 people remained hospitalized late in the day, including a woman who has a fractured skull, and at least 63 people were arrested.

The movement began Friday at dawn with the forceful intervention of the police to dislodge a few hundred activists who had occupied for three days Gezi Park in Taksim Square, in order to prevent the uprooting of 600 trees as part of an urban development project highly contested.

Rioted through social networks, community activists flocked to lend a hand to protesters and denounce the policy of the Islamic-conservative government in power since 2002. The clashes continued until dawn. "The trees, it's just the straw that broke the camel's back. People are sick and tired of everything this government is doing to them, "said the night a young protester.

By Friday evening, the challenge side of Istanbul has spread to other cities, such as Izmir (west), Antalya (south) or the capital Ankara, which are incident between the police to demonstrators who wanted march on parliament. Everywhere, the protesters denounced the repression in Istanbul and accused Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of violations of civil liberties.

Erdogan accused of trying to "Islamize" Turkish society

The political opposition has taken over these criticisms by flaunting the protesters. The chairman of the Republican People's Party (CHP), the main rival of the government, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, Erdogan called the police to withdraw the streets of Istanbul. At the call of social networks and the CHP, a protest is planned for Saturday afternoon on the Asian side of Istanbul.

If the per capita income has tripled in Turkey since the coming to power of his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in 2002, Erdogan is accused of authoritarian excesses and wanting to "Islamize" Turkish society. Last week, the passing of a law restricting the sale and consumption of alcohol has raised the ire of liberal circles. Silent on these events since Friday, the head of the government said on Wednesday it would not back down. "Do what you want, we decided," he shouted to his critics.

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Turkey bombed military targets in Syria

Turkey's military struck targets inside Syria on Wednesday in response to a mortar bomb fired from Syrian territory which killed five Turkish civilians, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's office said in a statement.

Our armed forces in the border region responded immediately to this abominable attack in line with their rules of engagement; targets were struck through artillery fire against places in Syria identified by radar, the statement said.

"Turkey will never leave unanswered such kinds of provocation by the Syrian regime against our national security," it added.

Davutoğlu had also agreed with NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen on the need for an emergency meeting of NATO members, the statement said.

A mortar bomb fired from Syria landed in a residential district of the southeastern Turkish town of Akçakale on Wednesday, killing a woman and four children from the same family and wounding at least 13 other people.

A cloud of dust and smoke rose up over low-rise buildings as residents ran to help the wounded. Others, infuriated by the increasing spillover of violence from Syria's civil war, took to the streets shouting protests against the local authorities.

Davutoğlu phoned UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to brief him about the incident and also spoke with senior military officials and Syria crisis mediator Lakhdar Brahimi, his ministry said in a statement.

Davutoğlu signaled over the weekend that Turkey would take action if there was a repeat of a mortar strike which damaged homes and workplaces in Akçakale last Friday.

"It (latest mortar round) hit right in the middle of the neighbourhood. The wife and four children from the same family died," Ahmet Emin Meşhurgül, local head of the Turkish Red Crescent, told Reuters, adding he knew the victims personally.

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Turkey hittings military targets in Syria

Turkish artillery hit targets near Syria's Tel Abyad border town for a second day on Thursday, killing several Syrian soldiers according to activists and security sources, after a mortar bomb fired from the area killed five Turkish civilians.

Turkey's government said "aggressive action" against its territory by Syria's military had become a serious threat to its national security and sought parliamentary approval for the deployment of Turkish troops beyond its borders.

"Turkey has no interest in a war with Syria. But Turkey is capable of protecting its borders and will retaliate when necessary," Ibrahim Kalin, a senior adviser to Prime Minister Tayyip Erdoğan, said on his Twitter account.

Political, diplomatic initiatives will continue," he said.

In the most serious cross-border escalation of the 18-month uprising in Syria, Turkey hit back after what it called "the last straw" when a mortar hit a residential neighbourhood of the southern border town of Akçakale on Wednesday.

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Turkey’s Somalian Children

Turkey is carrying out a big aid campaign, led by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, for Somali who are suffering in the grip of drought.

In an effort to position himself as the leader of Muslim countries in the Middle East region, Erdogan is trying to show the slamic World that he is not indifferent to the Muslim Somalis. He stands up to Israel in order to gain sympathy of Muslim countries.

However, he is ignores those of his own citizens who are trying to lead their lives under very difficult conditions in Turkey. Because of the economic crises that have been experienced in Turkey, bankrupt businessmen live under very difficult conditions, and they are sought by the courts and police because of their debts.

When these businessmen are caught by the police, they are put into prison for five years. They do not have a prominent address and they constantly change the place they live in order not to be caught. They are unable to receive treatment when they get ill, because in hospitals, the police check whether the person is sought or not by the courts. And if they have a job, they can in no way benefit from social rights, because they cannot register for social security.

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Who is This Woman Challenging Erdogan in Turkey?

But in light of an impending "dictatorship of the Erdogan clique," says Tarhan, she wants to campaign for a different and more modern Turkey. "In this country, religious leaders are now declaring women who have been raped to be partially culpable, because they showed too much cleavage. They see women as nothing but baby-making machines. Do you really think that I can just sit there and do nothing?"

Until recently, Emine Ulker Tarhan was a Supreme Court justice in Ankara. But now she has discarded her robes and is challenging Recep Tayyip Erdogan for the Turkish leadership. The prime minister, she alleges, is establishing a surveillance state and is “becoming more dictatorial every day."

There are days on which Emine Ulker Tarhan isn’t constantly worried about bugs and wire taps. They are days when Tarhan, tall and blonde with metal-rimmed glasses, gets her 1964 VW Beetle out of the garage and puts on a CD by Zulfu Livaneli, the Turkish balladeer whose voice reminds her of “clear air."

And then are days, she says, when she feels like a character in George Orwell’s tale of a surveillance state, “1984." That’s when she sees the thought police on patrol, and when she is afraid to say the wrong word in her own home.

Today is one of those days. It’s a Monday morning in the embassy district of the Turkish capital Ankara, and Tarhan, wearing a black blazer over a blue blouse, is sitting in a friend’s law office, where the two are exchanging knowing glances. Could this office be bugged, too, they wonder? “Our country’s government is becoming more and more dictatorial every day," says Tarhan. “This isn’t paranoia."

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Human rights violations in Turkey

In an annual report released on Thursday, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), the top judicial body to rule on human rights violations in Europe, found that Turkey is by far the worst violator of human rights among the 47 signatory states of the European Convention on Human Rights.

In statistical data on violation judgments by country for the period between 1959 and 2009, Turkey topped the chart with 18.81 percent of all violation judgments, followed by Italy with 16.57 percent and Russia 6.34 percent. Within this timeframe, 2,295 judgments were entered for Turkey and only in 46 cases did the court find no violations. The most common human rights violation committed by Turkey was the denial of the right to a fair trial. Italy scored second with 2,021 judgments against it.

In 2009 alone, Turkey again topped the list in terms of violations of articles of the European Convention on Human Rights. In a tally of the number of judgments entered for Turkey, 356 cases out of a total of 1,625 put the country in the worst violator class. In only nine cases out of the 356 did the court find there was no violation, while stating that at least one violation occurred in the rest of the cases. Russia followed Turkey in 2009 with 210 judgments against it.

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Obama discusses regional upheaval with Erdogan

US President Barack Obama and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan have agreed that peoples' demands for legitimate and natural democratic rights should be recognized by their leaders, as political upheaval continues to rock the Middle East, from Egypt to Tunisia and from Lebanon to Yemen.

Obama initiated a telephone conversation with Erdoğan on Saturday night, the Turkish prime minister's press office said in a written statement released on Sunday.

President Barack Obama stated that he attaches importance to assessing new developments in the region with Prime Minister Erdoğan as the leader of Turkey, which has strong democratic customs in the region, and as a leader who came to power by gaining successful election results many times, the statement said, noting that the two leaders reached consensus that the legitimate and natural rights of the people of the region should be provided for and their calls for democracy should be heeded.

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The Turks and the Kurds

Despite the fact that the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), which claims to be the defender of Kurdish interests, is boycotting the upcoming referendum, a “no” vote will probably make Kurdish problems worse.

This may amount to mind reading, but judging by what they have been doing, the BDP formerly Democratic Society Party (DTP) politicians do not seem to be working toward the betterment of the Kurdish people’s living conditions, human rights or cultural rights. Although nobody asks them, they keep repeating that outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Öcalan is their leader and that the terrorist organization should also be listened to.

They must be out of their minds not to see that this rhetoric only fuels Turkish nationalist sentiments and that even Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AK Party), which is not nationalist, has to take these sentiments into account. That is why Erdoğan could not speed up his steps toward solving the problems that the Kurds have been facing. Whenever there is an attempt at democratization either the PKK starts killing civilians, bombing buses and attacking military stations or the BDP politicians start voicing impossible demands that only provoke the masses and discourage everyone who sincerely want to help. Rather than gradually improving the situation, these acts make the Kurds suffer further. With a “no” vote on the referendum, Turkish democratization will be reversed. One does not need to be a genius to understand this.

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