ISTANBUL: Hundreds of anti-government demonstrators chanted and sang in Istanbul’s Taksim Square early Thursday after Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan’s AK party floated the offer of a referendum on development plans that stirred two weeks of protests.
The night passed peacefully, with young men playing soccer on the square at dawn, after several days of fierce clashes between police and protesters opposed to Erdogan. But it was not clear if the referendum offer would quell protests.
The pro-government Star newspaper declared in a front page headline: “The way out is a referendum”.
“Referendum game”, said Cumhuriyet newspaper, which is fiercely critical of Erdogan, whom it portrays as an increasingly authoritarian figure in Turkish politics.
The deputy chairman of Erdogan’s ruling AK Party, Huseyin Celik, said late yesterday that the protesters should withdraw from Gezi Park, a corner of the square where they have set up a ramshackle settlements.
At the same time, he made a concession by offering a referendum on the redevelopment plans for the square that first stirred the unrest.
A heavy-handed police crackdown on Gezi Park nearly two weeks ago triggered an unprecedented wave of protest against Erdogan and his AK Party – an association of centrists and conservative religious elements – drawing in secularists, nationalists, professionals, unionists and students.
Riot police looked on from the fringes as crowds mingled late into the night, some protesters chanting and dancing, others applauding a concert pianist who took up residence with a grand piano in the middle of the square.
It was a contrast to the scene 24 hours earlier, when tear gas sent thousands scurrying into side streets before authorities bulldozed barricades and reopened the square to traffic for the first time since the troubles began.
“The government can’t accept these protests going on forever,” Celik told a news conference in the capital Ankara following a meeting between Erdogan and a group of public figures linked to the Gezi protesters.
“Those with bad intentions or who seek to provoke and remain in the park will (now) be facing the police,” he said.
Police fired tear gas and water cannon day after day in cities including Ankara last week. Three people, one a policeman, died and about 5,000 thousand people were injured, said the Turkish Medical Association.
The offer to hold a referendum on the park redevelopment is one of the only concessions the authorities have publicly floated after days of firm rhetoric from Erdogan refusing to back down. Celik gave few details of how a referendum would be carried out, saying it could either be held across Istanbul, or just in the district near Taksim.
Protesters want the government to punish those responsible for the violent police crackdown. (Reuters)
