Wave of Unrest Spreads Across Turkey

Crackdown on Protest in Istanbul Park Sparks Nationwide Demonstrations Against Government Policies

By By JOE PARKINSON, AYLA ALBAYRAK and EMRE PEKER

An unexpected eruption of often-violent civil unrest swept across Turkey over the weekend, the culmination of a simmering clash over social policy between Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and a broadening coalition of Turks that threatens the political stability of a key U.S. ally.

The demonstrations mushroomed after a police attack Friday on a small protest against government plans to replace a park in central Istanbul with a housing complex and shopping mall. After two days of clashes around the park and the adjacent Taksim Square, police withdrew Saturday afternoon, leaving protesters to occupy the area

Fueled by social-media images of the showdown, protests ricocheted around Turkey, and by the end of the weekend, hundreds of people had been injured and almost 2,000 detained in demonstrations that spread to half of Turkey's 81 provinces, according to the government.

Mr. Erdogan has won election three times, emboldening him to take a tougher line on everything from alcohol consumption to the media. The Turkish leader hit back over the weekend at critics who increasingly paint him as an autocrat, labeling the protesters "a minority."

"If you can call someone who is a servant of the country a dictator, then it leaves me speechless," he said in a televised speech. "I have no aim other than serving the nation." Mr. Erdogan and his ruling AKP party retain strong public support, and on Saturday he said he could summon five times as many people to the streets as the protesters.

While the protests are unlikely to herald the fall of Mr. Erdogan's government, they represent by far the biggest challenge to his 10-year rule.

The protests also lay bare the challenges Ankara faces as it tries to serve as a model for new Islamist governments in the region seeking to emulate the electoral success of Mr. Erdogan's Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party. Analysts said the impact could also shift politics in Turkey, an important U.S. ally in a region convulsed by uprisings and political turbulence.

"What we've seen this weekend is a watershed event in Turkey and there's no going back for the people who have taken part," said Sinan Ulgen, chairman of the Center for Economic and Foreign Policy Studies, a research group in Istanbul. "Even if Mr. Erdogan doesn't want to change, we will see more mass protests if his government doesn't listen to this constituency, because these people now realize their power,"

Sections of Istanbul, a city of 15 million that is vying to host the 2020 Olympic Games, turned into battle zones as protesters erected barricades to ward off riot police armed with tear gas and water cannons. The situation calmed in Istanbul on Sunday, although the mood was growing tense again at nightfall as protesters clashed with riot police in the seaside neighborhood of Besiktas, where Mr. Erdogan has an office. Unrest also ramped up in the capital of Ankara and the coastal city of Izmir.

"At this point, this protest is bigger than just a park. This issue won't be resolved with statements from officials," said Umut, a 21-year-old architecture student at the Istanbul Technical University, who declined to give his last name. "We're going to stay here, even if the police come back."

The unrest reflects a wellspring of frustration among a large and diverse section of Turkey's population. The prime minister's Justice and Development Party has delivered strong economic growth and political stability, but a growing number of Turks say it has also attempted to Islamize Turkey's secular state.

Recent episodes include a restriction on alcohol sales, Ankara's aggressive stance on the Syria conflict, a clampdown on independent media organizations and urban planning in Istanbul—including a new airport and a new bridge over the Bosporus that environmentalists say will uproot thousands of trees.

"People are angry because the government is interfering in everything, be it the alcohol restriction, building of the third bridge, or the new Taksim Square. Everything has piled up, and that's why people protest," said Erdal Bozyayla, a 29-year-old restaurant worker who supported the protesters and condemned the violence.

While recent opinion polls continue to show Mr. Erdogan retaining a strong lead over Turkey's opposition, some pollsters have noted that Turkish society has become more polarized under the AKP government.

"The new and growing trend in Turkey is the worrying polarization of identities and lifestyles, between the Turks and the Kurds, the Sunnis and the Alevis, conservatives and nonconservatives. This is a dangerous direction," said Bekir Agirdir, chairman of an independent Turkish polling company, KONDA, referring to a yet-to-be published poll conducted with 2,700 people across Turkey.

At Sunday's protest and in the much larger Saturday demonstration in Istanbul, the majority of those heading for the central Taksim Square appeared to be secular-leaning, younger Turks—bankers, accountants, lawyers and teachers—many holding smartphones. and receiving approving honks from sympathetic passing motorists. Some women with headscarves and bearded men also marched, though they were in the minority. Many protesters marched carrying supplies of lemons and milk, to soothe the effects of tear gas.

For many Turks, unease about the government began to boil over on Tuesday at a small sit-in protesting the destruction of the tree-lined Gezi park to make way for a redevelopment of an Ottoman barracks and shopping mall. A group of no more than a few hundred people pitched tents and chanted slogans protesting the destruction of one of central Istanbul's last green spaces.

On Wednesday, Turkish riot police attempted to dislodge the protesters and secure the area, but demonstrators scattered and returned. On Thursday, at dawn, riot police moved in more forcefully, attacking the group with tear gas bombs and water cannon, leaving several injured.

Pictures of the attack on unarmed protesters, many of them female or elderly, spread across social media, galvanizing support for the protest. Thousands marched to the square to join the demonstration. On Friday, hundreds of riot police swarmed the park, using tear gas and attempting to clear protesters with water cannon.

While the ferocity of Friday's police crackdown attracted world-wide headlines, the mass protests against the government went largely unreported on the main Turkish TV channels and government-supporting newspapers.

Protesters vowed to push ahead. "I need to go to work on Monday, but will continue to come in the evenings as long as necessary," said Serkan Narin, a 30-year-old technician from Istanbul. "We want the prime minister to apologize for what's happened in the past days and respect our personal lives and freedoms."