Istanbul : les manifestants ignorent l'ultimatum d'Erdogan
LE POINT: Malgré les risques de répression, les occupants préfèrent rester sur place, armés de leurs "chansons" et de leurs "poèmes".

Les manifestants qui occupent le parc Gezi à Istanbul, point de départ d'une vaste contestation antigouvernementale, ont annoncé jeudi qu'ils refusaient d'évacuer les lieux malgré le "dernier avertissement" du Premier ministre Recep Tayyip Erdogan avant une intervention de la police. "Nous resterons au parc Gezi avec nos tentes, nos sacs de couchage, nos chansons, nos livres, nos poèmes et toutes nos revendications", a déclaré lors d'une conférence de presse l'avocat Can Atalay au nom Solidarité Taksim, la principale coordination des manifestants. » | Source AFP | jeudi 13 juin 2013

Proteste in Istanbul: Erdogan richtet "letzte Warnung" an Demonstranten

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Erst erwägt er eine Volksabstimmung, nun verschärft der türkische Premier Erdogan die Drohungen gegen die Demonstranten im Istanbuler Gezi-Park. Er fordert die Oppositionellen ultimativ auf, das Gelände zu verlassen.

Istanbul - Seit fast zwei Wochen wird gegen ihn demonstriert, jetzt droht der türkische Ministerpräsident Recep Tayyip Erdogan den Protestierenden mit einer härteren Gangart. Er fordert die Demonstranten in Istanbul ultimativ auf, das Camp im Gezi-Park zu verlassen. Der Regierungschef hatte die Demonstranten zuvor mehrfach als "Gesindel" bezeichnet. » | als/dpa/AFP | Donnerstag, Donnertag, 13. Juni 2013

Turkey Protests: Dangerous Waters with No Sign of Compromise
BBC: It began just after dawn on Tuesday: the thud of tear gas fired across Taksim Square in the biggest police operation here for over a week.

Arcs of water cannon were spewed towards protesters, some of whom responded with petrol bombs and bricks.

For 12 days, the central square in Turkey's biggest city had been under the authority of a growing protest movement. This was the moment that the government decided to retake it.

All through the day, the game of cat and mouse continued.

Once the police retreated, the protesters regrouped. They took refuge in the adjoining Gezi Park, where the unrest was first sparked in response to government plans to redevelop it.

I watched as telecoms trucks were set ablaze, black smoke fusing with the white plumes of tear gas into an acrid mix.

Not listening

What began as a demonstration by environmentalists has mushroomed into something far bigger: a fight by disparate groups for greater freedom in Turkey and a preservation of the country's secular order.

They see a government with an authoritarian, neo-Islamist agenda: the highest number of journalists in the world in prison, restrictions on alcohol sales, massive construction projects prioritised over human rights.

"This is not an Arab spring", one protester, Melis Behlil, told me.

"We have free elections here. But the problem is that the person elected doesn't listen to us." » | Mark Lowen | BBC News, Istanbul | Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Proteste in der Türkei: Erdogans harte Linie gefährdet EU-Beitrittsverhandlungen
SPIEGEL ONLINE: Das Vorgehen der Regierung Erdogan gegen die Demonstranten in Istanbul bringt die EU in eine Zwangslage. Einerseits wollen die Europäer die Gewalt nicht tolerieren, andererseits aber die Türkei als Partner halten. Die nächste Runde der Beitrittsgespräche ist in Gefahr.

London/Berlin - Wieder waren es Bilder der Gewalt, die aus Istanbul die Wohnzimmer Europas erreichten. Mit Bulldozern und Wasserwerfern rückte die Polizei in der Nacht zu Mittwoch auf den Taksim-Platz vor. Gasbomben wurden abgefeuert, Wasserwerfer jagten Demonstranten, Tränengasschwaden verhüllten die Straßen. Am Morgen waren die Reste der Schlacht auf dem geräumten Platz zu besichtigen.

Das harte Durchgreifen der Regierung von Ministerpräsident Recep Tayyip Erdogan stellt die EU-Partner vor ein Dilemma. Seit der Eskalation der Bürgerproteste am Gezi-Park Ende Mai schauen die Europäer dem Geschehen hilflos zu. Ein Appell hier, eine Ermahnung da, mehr kam bisher nicht aus Brüssel, Berlin, Paris und London.

Die Partner sorgen sich, dass die Gewaltexzesse alle Fortschritte der vergangenen Monate zunichte machen könnten. Mühsam hatte man sich nach Jahren der Eiszeit wieder aufeinander zu bewegt. Am 26. Juni wollten die EU-Außenminister zum ersten Mal seit drei Jahren ein neues Kapitel in den EU-Beitrittsverhandlungen mit der Türkei öffnen. Es wäre das 19. von 35 Kapiteln. Nur eines wurde bislang vorläufig abgeschlossen. Zweifel in Westerwelles Ministerium » | Von Carsten Volkery und Severin Weiland | Mittwoch, 12. Juni 2013

Türkei: Nächtliche Unruhen in Istanbul und Ankara
In der Nacht ist es in der Türkei erneut zu Zusammenstößen zwischen Demonstranten und der Polizei gekommen. Ministerpräsident Erdogan kündigte Gespräche an.

Istanbul : la police interpelle des avocats
LE POINT: En grève depuis le début du mouvement, les avocats s'étaient rassemblés pour protester contre l'évacuation par la force de la place Taksim.

La police a interpellé mardi une cinquantaine d'avocats qui protestaient contre l'intervention dans la matinée des forces de l'ordre contre les manifestants occupant la place Taksim d'Istanbul, a annoncé leur association. En grève depuis le début de la fronde qui vise le Premier ministre Recep Tayyip Erdogan il y a douze jours, ces avocats se sont réunis dans l'enceinte du palais de justice d'Istanbul pour dénoncer la police, qui a repris manu militari le contrôle de la place Taksim, aux cris de "Taksim est partout", "la résistance est partout", a raconté à l'AFP une avocate ayant requis l'anonymat. La police est alors intervenue dans le palais de justice pour les en déloger. Après de brèves échauffourées, une cinquantaine de manifestants ont été interpellés, a rapporté l'Association des avocats contemporains. (+ vidéo) » | Source AFP | mardi 11 juin 2013

Erdoğan's Reaction to Turkey Protests Reveals Ominous Putin Parallels
THE GUARDIAN: Leader is used to having things his own way but, civil society movement can no longer be suppressed, says Luke Harding

The assault was as brutal as it was predictable. On Friday and Saturday Erdoğan had hosted a European Union meeting in Istanbul. Rumour had it that Turkey's prime minister would send in riot police to clear away the demonstrators from Taksim Square – which they had peacefully occupied for 12 days — once his European guests had flown home.

And so it proved, with police encircling the square at 6am on Tuesday, firing rubber bullets and teargas, and ripping down banners calling for Erdoğan's resignation. By happy coincidence, Turkey's state media, which for days had blithely ignored the country's massive anti-government demonstrations, was on hand to record the event.

Turkish TV viewers witnessed this: a small group of four or five "demonstrators" throwing molotov cocktails at police. At one point they advance on police lines in a comic Roman-style phalanx while holding the flag of a fringe Marxist party. The "protesters" were in fact middle-aged undercover police officers, staging a not very plausible "attack" on their own for the benefit of the cameras.

But the violence meted out against the genuine protesters camped out under the plane trees of nearby Gezi Park was real enough. Dozens were left choking or injured as teargas billowed across central Istanbul. Meanwhile, some 50 lawyers acting for detained activists were themselves dragged away by police and roughed up at Istanbul's Çağlayan court.

Faced with a choice between engaging with this new, vibrant civil society movement, or crushing it, Erdoğan has picked the latter course. Indeed, his reaction to the nationwide citizens' revolt reveals ominous parallels with another autocratic leader who has recently found himself in a tight spot: Vladimir Putin.

None of this bodes well for Turkey's already tortuous EU accession prospects, for relations between secular and religious Turks, or for the country's democratic future. » | Luke Harding | Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Turkey PM Erdogan Warns Protesters 'It's Over'
Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan called on protesters to leave Istanbul's Taksim square, warning that his patience is running thin.

Read the Telegraph article here | Tuesday, June 11, 2013

'Istanbul Like War Zone': Turkey Clashes Raging with Gas, Bullets & Cannons
Hundreds of police in riot gear are clearing barricades from Istanbul's Taksim square. They've used teargas and rubber bullets to force protesters out, many of who fled to Gezi park, where the unrest started. A crew from RT's Arabic sister Channel has been caught-up in the crackdown when police teargassed demonstrators

Turquie : concerts, meetings et manifestations réinvestissent la place Taksim d'Istanbul

LE MONDE: Des milliers de manifestants ont repris possession, dimanche 9 juin, de la place Taksim d'Istanbul pour assister à un concert et à une réunion politique, au dixième jour de la mobilisation contre le premier ministre, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Sur une tribune dressée dans la matinée au milieu de la place, les harangues dénonçant la politique du gouvernement et les brutalités policières se succèdent, entrecoupées de morceaux de musique et immanquablement ponctuées de "Tayyip, démission !" ou "Gouvernement, démission !", scandés par la foule. » | Le Monde.fr avec AFP | dimanche 09 juin 2013

Erdogan's Mishandling of Protests Has Exposed the Myth of a Stable Turkey
THE INDEPENDENT: World View: The PM's inability to counter unrest within and enemies without make any talk of a 'new Ottoman empire' absurd

There is something almost comic in the way the missteps of the Turkish government turned a small demonstration aimed at preserving sycamore trees in Taksim Square from the developers' bulldozers into the biggest and most widespread popular protest ever seen in Turkey. The Turkish security forces made the classic mistake of being pictured on television and social media publicly assaulting peaceable protesters with water cannon and pepper spray. Just enough violence was used to enrage and provoke while wholly failing to intimidate.

There was a time when brutality by the security forces was easier to keep off TV screens by censorship or frightening journalists and media-owners. But these mechanisms no longer work when people have a multitude of TV channels inside and outside the country to choose from. Running documentaries on penguins, as CNN Turkey notoriously did, simply creates a vacuum of information which is rapidly filled by protesters. The government's version of what is happening becomes self-marginalised and is ignored.

It is astonishing that skilled politicians such as the Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and those around him should make so many mistakes in such a short time. It is easy to why Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali of Tunisia and Hosni Mubarak of Egypt should have miscalculated popular reaction to repression at the start of the Arab uprisings in 2011, because as rulers of police states their approach to public opinion was to ignore it. Read on and comment » | Patrick Cockburn | Sunday, June 09, 2013

Turkey's Protesters Proclaimed as True Heirs of Nation's Founding Father

THE OBSERVER: Ataturk, the secular reformer, has become the symbol for young Turks defying what they see as Erdogan's reactionary reversion to the Ottoman past

Among the tents, snoozing youth and pleasant shady trees of Istanbul's Gezi Park there are portraits of one man in a European suit. Wherever you look Mustafa Kemal Ataturk – founder of the Turkish Republic – gazes sternly at you. Photos of the first president hang from branches, have been affixed to tea stalls, and even encircle a giant banner showing Turkey's prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, dressed as Hitler.

"We really love Ataturk. He changed our state. He made it into a modern republic," explained Murat Bakirdoven, a 24-year-old biology student who has been camping in the park for a week. Someone had stuck another photo of Ataturk – this time in a lounge suit, sitting on a leather chair, cigarette in hand – on a nearby tree. Bakirdoven added: "Erdogan wants us to forget him. Instead we are trying to create an Ataturk renaissance."

For the protesters who have taken part in Turkey's anti-government demonstrations, Ataturk is a hero. Dead for 75 years, he has become the reborn symbol of this student-driven anti-Erdogan movement. (The other motif is a penguin – a reference to the state media, which failed to report on the uprising for several days; one channel, CNN Turk, instead screened a nature documentary on Antarctica).

The symbolism goes to the heart of what this unprecedented uprising is about: Turkey's modern identity. At issue is whether Turkey should be the progressive, secular European nation-state that Ataturk originally envisaged and shaped from the ruins of the Ottoman empire, or a more explicitly religious country, a sort of Muslim version of Christian democracy. The protesters want the former; Erdogan, and his ruling Islamist-rooted Justice and Development party (AKP), it appears, the latter. » | Luke Harding Istanbul | Saturday, June 08, 2013

Lady in the Red Dress and Her Dream of a Turkish Rebirth

THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: The reluctant heroine who symbolises the Istanbul protests tells Ruth Sherlock she believes people power will prevail in Turkey.

With her red cotton dress, white shoulder bag and flowing black hair, she has become the colour-coded emblem of Turkey's new people-power movement.

Caught on camera as she was sprayed head to toe in tear gas, Ceyda Sungur's treatment at the hands of Istanbul's riot police seemed the epitome of using a "sledgehammer to crack a nut" and encapsulated the government's heavy-handed response to a civilised protest.

Pictures of the "Lady in the Red Dress" quickly spread around the world via the internet. Those who shared the pictures online joined protesters in demanding to know why a woman who looked attired for a summer picnic had been treated like a masked, brick-throwing anarchist.

Last week, Ms Sungur said she was a reluctant heroine, describing herself as just part of a wider grass-roots movement, and pointing out in brief remarks to a Turkish newspaper that hundreds of others had been gassed in similar fashion.

Now, though, having declined requests for interviews from all over the world, Ms Sungur, an academic, has spoken briefly but vividly to The Sunday Telegraph about her involvement in what happened, and how she is now working in a makeshift clinic to help others hurt in demonstrations. » | Ruth Sherlock, Istanbul | Saturday, June 08, 2013

Protests in Turkey: 'Taksim Square Belongs to Us'

SPIEGEL ONLINE INTERNATIONAL: The protests in Turkey have brought together people from all walks of life, including engineers, teachers, construction workers, leftists and even some former supporters of Prime Minister Erdogan. They are demanding changes in a country that is more divided than ever before.

An engineer, who stumbles through the clouds of pepper spray. A doctor to be, who brings medicine and lemon juice, which is supposed to help limit the effects of tear gas. A teacher, who is filming everything with her camcorder. A foreign exchange student, who is there to experience the revolutionary atmosphere. A left-wing activist, who has been camping for days on Taksim Square in the heart of Istanbul, defending it against the police.

All kinds of people are demonstrating against the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Monday night marked just the latest gathering in Turkey's biggest city, part of the wave of protests that has spread across the country after a handful of people in Istanbul came out to prevent the destruction of a small park in the city. It has become a revolt. Hundreds, if not thousands, in Taksim Square have refused to go home and continue to brave the tear gas wafting through the streets. Though the situation has calmed down since the weekend, protesters remain behind their makeshift barricades, made of police barriers and whatever else they could find.

"We are staying until Tayyip goes and we have our freedom," says 24-year-old Balkan. He has taken a break from making films and now sees himself primarily as part of the resistance movement. Looking out at the people on the square, he says "they are all my friends." » | Oliver Trenkamp in Istanbul | Tuesday, June 04, 2013

Workers Strike in Support of Turkey Protests
Two-day strike under way to protest over government's harsh response to demonstrations that have swept the nation.

Read the Al Jazeera article here | Source: Al Jazeera and agencies | Tuesday, June 04, 2013

Revolt in Turkey: Erdogan's Grip on Power Is Rapidly Weakening

SPIEGEL ONLINE INTERNATIONAL: For a decade, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has had a tight grip on power. But it suddenly looks to be weakening. Thousands have taken to the streets across the country and the threats to Erdogan's rule are many. His reaction has revealed him to be hopelessly disconnected.

The rooftops of Istanbul can be seen in the background and next to them is a gigantic image of Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Turkey's powerful prime minister is watching over the city -- and is also monitoring the work of the political party he controls. At least that seems to be the message of the image, which can be found in a conference room at the headquarters of Erdogan's Justice and Development Party (AKP).

These days, though, Istanbul is producing images that carry a distinctly different meaning -- images of violent protests against the vagaries of Erdogan's rule. And it is beginning to look as though the prime minister, the most powerful leader Turkey has seen since the days of modern Turkey's founder Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, might be losing control.

As recently as mid-May, Erdogan boasted during an appearance at the Brookings Institute in Washington D.C. of the $29 billion airport his government was planning to build in Istanbul. "Turkey no longer talks about the world," he said. "The world talks about Turkey."

Just two weeks later, he appears to have been right -- just not quite in the way he had anticipated. The world is looking at Turkey and speaking of the violence with which Turkish police are assaulting demonstrators at dozens of marches across the country. Increasingly, Erdogan is looking like an autocratic ruler whose people are no longer willing to tolerate him. » | Özlem Gezer, Maximilian Popp and Oliver Trenkamp | Monday, June 03, 2013

Turkey Protesters Celebrate after Police Leave Istanbul Square
Thousands of protesters celebrated early on Sunday after police withdrew from Istanbul's Taksim Square, the focal point of nationwide protests against Turkey's Islamist-rooted government.

Read the article here | AFP | Sunday, June 02, 2013

Massenprotest: Türkische Demonstranten erringen Sieg über Erdogan

DIE WELT: Nach fünftägigen Protesten stoppt die Regierung den Polizeieinsatz. Premier Erdogan verzichtet auf das umstrittene Bauprojekt im Stadtzentrum. Hunderttausende strömen auf den Taksim-Platz in Istanbul.

Mehr als eine Million Menschen forderten im Herzen Istanbuls am frühen Samstagabend den Rücktritt des türkischen Ministerpräsidenten Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Zuvor hatte die Regierung um 16 Uhr Ortszeit befohlen, den Polizeieinsatz gegen die Maßenproteste abzubrechen, die fünf Tage davor begonnen hatten.

Der türkische Ministerpräsident hat sich erstmals in seiner Regierungszeit massiven Protesten gegen seine Politik beugen müssen. Nach Massendemonstrationen, die sich über das ganze Land ausgebreitet hatten, und nachdem Hunderttausende Menschen in Istanbul der Polizeigewalt trotzten, wurde der Polizeieinsatz abgebrochen.

Menschenmassen strömten über die mittlerweile völlig zerstörte Einkaufsmeile Istiklal klatschend und mit Siegesrufen zum Taksim-Platz, von dem die Proteste vor fünf Tagen ausgegangen waren. Dort hatte die Regierung nun einen Park wieder geöffnet, den Tage sie zuvor gewaltsam hatte räumen lassen. Größte Anti-Erdogan Demonstration » | Von Boris Kálnoky , Istanbul | mit dpa | Samstag, 01. Juni 2013

Byzantium, The Lost Empire: Building the Dream

Turkey Ready for War, Says PM Erdogan
The Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, says Turkey does not want war, but warns Syria not to test its resolve. Speaking on Friday in Istanbul, Erdogan said: 'You have to be ready at every moment to go to war if necessary'