Clashes continue in Istanbul

Clashes continued in Istanbul late Sunday and early Monday between police and demonstrators in the Besiktas District of the city, which is walking distance from Taksim Square.
At approximately 9:30 p.m., demonstrators in Taksim Square were notified through social media that police were moving up toward the square once again, since being ordered out by top police officials Saturday afternoon in the hopes of reinstating calm.
Hundreds of protesters made their way down from Taksim Square toward the affluent Besiktas District in response. There, police had gathered near the Prime Minister’s office to ensure that the protests in Taksim Square would not spread there, and out of Taksim.
Young men and women moved quickly to build barricades to block the roads tearing up stone pathways, street signs and barricades leading up to the Square that was the scene of a violent police crackdown on Friday morning against peaceful demonstrators sitting in at Dezi Park to prevent its destruction as government officials planed to tear it down and build a mall in its place.
One telecommunications van, which had been pushed over onto its side and looted during Saturday night’s rioting near Taksim Square, had been pushed down the streets approximately 200 meters toward Besiktas to serve as a barricade for protesters.
Dozens of tear gas canisters were fired at demonstrators Sunday night who responded with volleys of hundreds of stones aimed at riot police.
An unknown number of protesters were injured in the melee. Shouts of, “doctor, doctor”, could be heard every few minutes as protesters got closer and closer to police lines, with several succumbing to a particularly noxious type of tear gas being used by police. A handful of protesters could be seen vomiting and suffering respiratory distress.
“We heard they (the police) were coming up from Besiktas to Taksim Square, so we rushed down to prevent that from happening,” a 19 year-old Turkish protester who asked to be identified only as Emre, told Arab News, at the scene.
Another protester wanting to be identified only as “F Erdogan”, said that Sunday night’s clashes in Besiktas were the most intense he had seen since violence broke out Saturday evening in the district.
“It’s only going to get worse and worse,” he said.
The situation got particularly worrisome for all concerned when protesters managed to get hold of a bulldozer and made their way toward police and the Prime Minister’s Istanbul office. However intense teargas shelling by police who were also using water cannons got protesters to quickly abandon that plan.
Many more who missed the clashes in Besiktas over the weekend vowed to make their way down there Monday night for another round of clashes.