Turkish deputy says violent crackdown on protests 'wrong and unjust'

Turkey’s deputy prime minister has offered an apology for a violent crackdown on an environmental protest, in a bid to appease days of anti-government rallies across the country as hundreds of riot police deployed around the prime minister’s office in the capital.

Bulent Arinc, who is standing in for prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan while he is out of the country, said the crackdown was “wrong and unjust”.

It was unclear whether Mr Arinc was giving the government line. Mr Erdogan, who is visiting Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia, has undermined statements by his ministers in the past. He has previously called protesters “looters” and dismissed the protests as acts by fringe extremists.

Thousands have joined anti-government rallies across Turkey since Friday, when police launched a pre-dawn raid against a peaceful sit-in protesting against plans to uproot trees in Istanbul’s main Taksim Square. Since then, the demonstrations by mostly secular-minded Turks have spiralled into Turkey’s biggest anti-government disturbances in years, and have spread to many of the biggest cities.

A 22-year-old man died during an anti-government protest yesterday in a city near the border with Syria, with officials giving conflicting reports on what caused his death.

The Hatay province governor’s office initially said the man who died, Abdullah Comert, was shot during a demonstration in the city of Antakya. It backtracked after the province’s chief prosecutor’s office said a post-mortem examination showed Mr Comert received a blow to the head and there was no trace of a gunshot wound.

Governor Celalettin Lekesiz did not respond to a journalist’s question as to whether the man might have died after being hit in the head by a gas canister. Mr Arinc said the government was taking “all measures” to ensure that similar “bad incidents” were not repeated as police subdued protests.

Protests were directed at what critics say is Mr Erdogan’s aggressive and authoritarian style of governance. Many accuse him of forcing his conservative, religious outlook on lives in this mainly Muslim, but secular nation. He rejects the accusations, saying he respects all lifestyles and insisting he is the “servant” not the “master” of the people.

Mr Arinc said today: “In that first (protest) action, the excessive violence exerted on people who were acting out of environmental concerns was wrong and unjust. I apologise to those citizens.”

He said the government was “sensitive” to the demands of the largely urban, pro-secular section of society that did not vote for Mr Erdogan’s Islamic-rooted party.

“I would like to express this in all sincerity: everyone’s lifestyle is important to us and we are sensitive to them.”

Mr Arinc was speaking after a meeting with president Abdullah Gul who, contrary to Mr Erdogan, has praised the mostly peaceful protesters as expressing their democratic rights.

Mr Gul and Mr Erdogan could face off next year in Turkey’s presidential election.

Clashes continued late into the night in Istanbul, Ankara and other cities, but Mr Arinc said the more violent protests were subsiding.

The Turkish Human Rights Association said 3,300 people nationwide were detained during four days of protests, although most have since been released. At least 1,300 people were injured, the group said, although it said the true figures were difficult to confirm.

Hundreds of riot police backed by water cannons are stationed around Ankara’s main square near the prime minister’s office.

In Istanbul, many people slept in the shade of trees on the grass of the park that sparked the protests, while others walked around with bags cleaning up rubbish. Protesters have set up an area in the centre where they are collecting food donations.

In Taksim Square, protesters sat under makeshift awnings. Overturned cars and burned-out vans stood on the edges and further in the square, spray-painted with graffiti.