Istanbul: Police blast anti-Erdogan protesters

[JohnF]

For the voyeuristic amongst us, coverage on:

http://www.halkhaber.tv/page-halk-canliyayin  sporadic

and

http://www.livestream.com/revoltistanbul  sometimes live, sometimes recorded

Was pretty brutal last night and more expected tonight.  Like the summer, everything spilled over into the streets surrounding Istiklal with groups of Polis chasing folks with the express intention of giving them a right good hiding. 

No video of it as yet, but a bunch of Polis cornered a group in Cihanger and before they could wade in were pelted with bags of flour, sugar and the contents of about a dozen flats cat litter trays.  The young folks managed to escape and my friend ended up wondering where her cats were going to sh1t.

Happy not to be there.

JF

[Ian]

I do hope Erdogan is big enough to step down and put country first - although he has always been a "street fighter" and sadly he may continue to fight to the detriment of his people and his country.

[Marggie]

Yes, how long can he resist?  Think he will fight to the bitter end.

http://www.todayszaman.com/columnist/mumtazer-turkone_335120_how-long-can-erdogan-resist.html

[GordonA]

Newspaper shut-down next ??

[FrankStanley]

Well said Apollo.

[Gorgeous_bird]

My point about Mugla is simply that this is not something confined to the bigger cities, people across Turkey are protesting and actually when it spreads to the smaller places it shows the true scale of the protest in Turkey. My very good friend in Turkey is a political activist in the area and he me posted on what is going on, he feels confident the people will win this.

[maximumtom]

Newspaper shut-down next ??

The Hurriyet Daily News has stopped posting comments on the troubles.   I think the 'sultan' is as likely to resign as Hitler would have been in the 1930.  You might think that the comparison is a little over the top, but when you look at what has gone on ... Turkey has more journalists in jail than any other country; the Gezi park confrontation,  the raids by police on the homes of people who took part in the Gezi riots; the slow but sure Islamisation of the country detroying the secular legacy of Ataturk; the continued persecution of minorities, such as Alevi, Christians, etc; the number of people prosecuted for disagreeing with the 'sultan'; the imprisonment of army officer for 'supposedly' hatching a coup ( no trials yet ).  I may have left some things out or made the odd mistake, but the general trend of anti-democratic moves by this government is undeniable. Not to mention (for the hardcore of readers) the rise in alcohol tax.