Turkey protests enter second week B6 Sunday, June 9, 2013
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Police in Ankara fired tear gas and used water cannons to disperse thousands of people protesting near government buildings on Saturday, as Turkey’s biggest wave of anti-government protests in decades entered its second week with no signs of waning. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s governing party, meanwhile, rejected calls for early elections, and dismissed the protests as an attempt by the opposition to topple the government. The protests, sparked by outrage over a violent police action to oust an environmental protest in Isanbul’s Taksim Square on May 31, and which have spread to dozens of cities across Turkey, are the first serious challenge to Erdogan’s leadership. Three people have died — two protesters and a policeman — and thousands have been injured so far. The protests have become a general condemnation of Erdogan, whom many consider to have grown authoritarian in his 10 years in power, and accuse of trying to introduce his religious and conservative mores in a country governed by secular laws. He convened the leadership of his Justice and Development party to discuss the protests Saturday afternoon. Speaking after the meeting, party spokesman Huseyin Celik said rumors that the 2015 general elections would be moved forward were “totally baseless, totally unnecessary, madeup and imaginary,” Celik also accused the main opposition party of trying to topple Erdogan through illegitimate means, “having failed seven times to beat (the Justice party) in the ballot boxes.” The head of Turkey’s
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nationalist party, Devlet Bahceli, had called for early elections for Erdogan to reaffirm his mandate. “The prime minister’s stance and the tumult have deepened the crisis,” Bahceli told reporters. “The prime minister’s time is up, we believe he has to renew his mandate.” The protests have attracted a broad array of people angered by what they say are Erdogan’s increasingly authoritarian ways and his intervention in private lives. They point to attempts to curtail the selling and promotion of alcohol, his comments on how women should dress and statements that each woman should have at least three children. A devout Muslim who says he is committed to upholding Turkey’s secular tradition, Erdogan vehemently rejects charges of autocracy and points out that he enjoyed 50 percent support in the last elections in 2011. The protests began as a sit-in at Taksim’s Gezi Park to prevent a redevelopment project that would replace the park with replica Ottoman barracks and a shopping mall. The mall idea has since been scrapped, with Erdogan recently saying an opera house, theater and possibly a museum would be built instead. Erdogan said Friday that the protests must end immediately. However, they show no signs of abating. On Saturday, thousands of fans from Istanbul’s rival football teams, Fenerbahce, Galatasaray and Besiktas, set aside their usual rivalry to march together and join protesters in Taksim Square. They set off dozens of flares, which streaked into the night sky above the packed square. A group of Besiktas fans also marched in Ankara. “We are against injustice,”
Mandela has lung infection
JOHANNESBURG (AP) — South Africans on Saturday said their thoughts were with former President Nelson Mandela, who was in “serious but stable” condition after being taken to a hospital to be treated for a recurring lung infection. Mandela, who is 94 years old, was treated in a hospital several times in recent months, with the last discharge coming on April 6 after doctors diagnosed him with pneumonia and drained fluid from his lung area. He has been particularly vulnerable to respiratory problems since contracting tuberculosis during his 27-year imprisonment under apartheid. A small girl and her father stood outside Mandela’s Johannesburg home with a stone on which was written a get-well message for Mandela, who helped end white racist rule and became the country’s first black president in all-race elections in 1994. A young boy brought a bouquet of flowers that he handed over to guards at the house. Elsewhere in the city, some worshippers prayed for Mandela during an outdoor gathering. “If the time comes, we wish for him a good way to go,” said Noel Ngwenya, a security officer who was in the congregation. “During the past few days, former President Nelson Mandela has had a recurrence of lung infection,” said a statement from the office of President Jacob Zuma. “This morning at about 1:30 a.m., his condition deteriorated and he was transferred to a Pretoria hospital.” It said Mandela was receiving expert medical care and “doctors are doing everything possible to make him better and comfortable.” Zuma wished Mandela a quick recovery on behalf of the government and the nation and requested that the media and the public respect the privacy of the former leader and his family, the statement said. Mandela’s wife, humanitarian activist Graca Machel, canceled an appearance at an international forum on hunger and nutrition in London on Saturday, citing “personal reasons,” said Colleen Harris, a spokeswoman for the meeting. Presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj said Machel had canceled her attendance at the London meeting on Thursday, and had accompanied Mandela to the hospital on Saturday morning, the South African Press Association reported. “We need to hold our thoughts and keep him in our minds,” Maharaj said. “He is a fighter, he has recovered many times from very serious conditions and he will be with us. Let’s pray for him and help him to get better.” The African National Congress, the ruling party that has dominated politics in South Africa since the end of apartheid, said it hoped Mandela, known affectionately by his clan name Madiba, would get better soon. “We will keep President Mandela and his family in our thoughts and prayers at this time and call upon South Africans and the peoples of the globe to do the same for our beloved statesman and icon, Madiba,” the party said in a statement.
said Kerim Yilmaz, 26, who heads a fans group in Ankara, told The Associated Press. “Our friends’ and all of our freedoms are being limited. We do not want our green areas to be used for shopping malls. We all want to live freely. We are here to defend our freedom.” Police in the capital used tear gas and water cannon to scatter thousands of people marching to an area close to Erdogan’s office and to Parliament on Saturday. Police and protesters also clashed in Istanbul’s Sultangazi suburb. Over the past week, protesters — mainly young, secular and middle-class, but also including some religious Muslims who were formerly Erdogan supporters — have set up camp in Gezi Park. They have vowed to remain there until the development project for the area is canceled — something Erdogan has shown no signs of being willing to do.
Roswell Daily Record
AP Photo
Protesters wearing Guy Fawkes masks hold a Turkish flag while standing on a barricade on a road leading to Taksim Square early Sunday, June 9, 2013.
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