Istanbul square calm after night of violence

ISTANBUL: Calm returned to central Istanbul yesterday morning after a night of violence as police drove protesters out of Taksim Square.
Commuters wandered across the square in the rain, many coughing from the tear gas fired by police in clashes that continued through most of the night.
Municipal workers swept up piles of litter and started scrubbing off anti-government slogans sprayed on walls.
In adjacent Gezi Park, where police didn’t intervene, protesters ate breakfast under plastic shelters or slept in tents and camping chairs.
Istanbul Gov. Huseyin Avni Mutlu said that police will continue their battle against the “marginal groups” attacking them, without targeting the protesters in Gezi Park, where the demonstrations began two weeks ago over redevelopment plans that included cutting down trees.
Still, he urged people there to leave for their own safety.
The demonstrations, which spread nationwide after May 31, are the biggest in more than 10 years under Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and sent Turkish markets plunging.
At least four people have died in clashes, and the Turkish Medical Association says more than 4,000 people have been treated at hospitals. The demonstrators say Erdogan’s government is increasingly unwilling to countenance dissent.
“OK, he came to power with the most votes, but that doesn’t make him an emperor,” said Sinem Ayata, a recent graduate drinking tea with friends under a makeshift shelter in Gezi Park early yesterday.
“The government won’t fall, and they’ll probably cut down the trees anyway. But we’re here to oppose this style of ‘I’m doing it, and that’s that.’