Turkish prime minister convenes party leadership

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has said the protests must end immediately, will meet with top officials from his Justice and Development Party in Istanbul.

June 08, 2013 05:32 pm | Updated November 17, 2021 05:12 am IST - ISTANBUL

Protesters hold placards that read " don't yield " in the city's  Kugulu Park in Ankara, Turkey, late Friday, June 7, 2013. A senior European Union official, the EU enlargement commissioner Stefan Fule, on Friday criticized Turkish police's harsh crackdown on protesters in the previous week, asked that abusers be investigated and punished and told an audience that included Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, that as a EU-candidate country, Turkey should aspire to the highest standards of democracy.(AP Photo/Burhan Ozbilici)

Protesters hold placards that read " don't yield " in the city's Kugulu Park in Ankara, Turkey, late Friday, June 7, 2013. A senior European Union official, the EU enlargement commissioner Stefan Fule, on Friday criticized Turkish police's harsh crackdown on protesters in the previous week, asked that abusers be investigated and punished and told an audience that included Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, that as a EU-candidate country, Turkey should aspire to the highest standards of democracy.(AP Photo/Burhan Ozbilici)

Turkey’s Prime Minister convened his party leadership on Saturday as anti-government protests entered their ninth day, with thousands of people still occupying Istanbul’s central Taksim Square.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has said the protests must end immediately, will meet with top officials from his Justice and Development Party in Istanbul.

The protests began as a sit-in at a park in Taksim Square to prevent a redevelopment project that would replace the park with replica Ottoman barracks and a shopping mall. The mall idea seems to have fallen by the wayside, with Mr Erdogan recently saying an opera house, theatre and possibly a museum would be built instead.

But violent intervention by police to eject the protesters on May 31 outraged many, and the protests spread to dozens of cities across Turkey.

Over the past nine days of demonstrations and frequent violent confrontations with police, three people have been killed two protesters and a policeman and thousands have been injured.

The protests have attracted a broad array of people angered by what they say are Mr 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, Mr Erdogan vehemently rejects charges of autocracy and points out that he enjoyed 50 percent support in the last elections in 2011.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.