Taksim Square Riots Rage On

“We are here to protect the legacy of Ataturk and the Turkish state, which is the state we work for.”

Behind them, a group of actors from a state theatre carried banners showing an opera mask weeping a blood-red tear, flanked by union representatives in baseball caps and members of the Turkish communist party.

A 22-year-old member of the main opposition youth wing was killed after being hit in the head at a rally in the southern town of Antakya near the Syrian border late on Monday, the second death after a taxi hit a protester in Istanbul on Sunday.

A rally for the Antakya victim, whom medics said appeared to have been hit by a gas canister, was planned later in Ankara.

Four other people were in a critical condition, the Turkish Doctors’ Association said, while around 3,000 had suffered light injuries such as breathing difficulties or minor lacerations.

The ferocity of the crackdown, which involved dawn raids on Thursday and Friday by riot police on peaceful campaigners camped in the park, has shocked even Erdogan loyalists and drawn international condemnation.

US Secretary of State John Kerry said he was concerned by reports of excessive police force while Austrian Foreign Minister Michael Spindelegger warned Turkey not to put its relationship with Europe through an “endurance test.”

“A broader social discontent is finding expression in the demonstrations. The government should therefore take the concerns seriously and seek dialogue,” Spindelegger told the Austrian newspaper Die Presse.

Turkey began formal accession negotiations with the European Union eight years ago but progress has been slow, partly due to concern over its record on human rights and freedom of speech.

The main public sector union federation, the leftist KESK, which represents 240,000 members, began a two-day warning strike on Tuesday while a second group, the Turkish Revolutionary Workers Union Confederation, said its members would also stage a walkout on Wednesday.

“These operations have drowned the country in gas bombs. The prime minister has become so thoughtless as to describe the millions who exercise their democratic rights … as a ‘handful of marginal looters,’” KESK said in a statement.

Erdogan has dismissed the protests as the work of secular enemies never reconciled to the election success of his AK Party, which has roots in Islamist parties banned in the past but which also embraces center-right and nationalist elements. The party has won three straight elections and overseen an economic boom, increasing Turkey’s influence in the region.

Armenian civic activists issued a statement in support of the defenders of protestors.

“The recent news coming from Taksim Square, Istanbul, is worrying. We, Armenian civic activists, express our support and solidarity to all those activists fighting for human rights and democratization processes in Turkey. We condemn the use of force against peaceful demonstrators, which has resulted in deaths, dozens of injuries and the detention of hundreds.  There is no alternative to democracy. Human rights have no borders. We call for the respect of the basic rights of citizens to hold peaceful demonstrations. We simultaneously demand that the issue be properly investigated by the Council of Europe and other international organizations.  We are sure that our generation in Armenia, in Turkey, and in other countries will be able to build democratic societies which will endorse regional and global, dynamic and equal human development. We are for the human rights struggle,” they said in their statement, according to Arminfo news website.