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Turkish riot police have used tear gas and water cannon during clashes with thousands of protesters in Istanbul, as more people joined the second day of the fiercest anti-government demonstrations for years. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday called for an immediate end to the protests, that were triggered by government redevelopment plans of a park in Istanbul's Taksim Square. The protests have since widened into a broader show of defiance against Erdogan and his government and spread to Ankara and other cities.  Interior Minister Muammer Guler said 79 people have been injured in the unrest and hundreds detained.
"There have been 939 detentions in various cities. Some of them have already been released," Guler told reporters in comments broadcast by Turkish state television. Mevlut Cavusoglu, the vice president of foreign affairs, told Al Jazeera that protests turned violent with demonstrators attacking police cars and destroying property. But he did admit that police officers used "excessive force" against demonstrators and said it would be investigated. "It is true police used excessive force and this is not acceptable. We can not accept this because we have been trying to democratise this country," he said. Police left Taksim Square on Saturday afternoon, taking away barricades and allowing in tens of thousands of protesters to gather. Earlier, police fired tear gas and water cannon down a major shopping street as crowds chanting "unite against fascism" and "government resign" marched towards Taksim, where hundreds were injured in clashes on Friday. A police helicopter buzzed overhead as groups of mostly young men and women, bandanas or surgical masks tied around their mouths, used Facebook and Twitter on mobile phones to try to organise and regroup in side streets. Hundreds of people were chasing police vehicles as they were trying to leave the area. |