Gerald Celente - RTTV International - June 6, 2013
The number of deaths during a series of demonstrations in Turkey reaches
three, ahead of the PM's return to the country.A policeman has died
after falling into an underpass while trying to subdue continued
protests in Turkey.
The death in the southern city of Adana came
during a seventh day of action across the country, during which a total
of three people have now died.
Governor Huseyin Avni Cos said the
officer died in a hospital after falling into the underpass that was
still under construction the previous night.
Meanwhile, supporters of prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan have been urged not to welcome him on his return from abroad.
Speaking
after thousands of angry demonstrators called for the resignation of
the PM, deputy leader of the ruling party, Huseyin Celik, said: "The
prime minister does not need a show of power." When Mr Erdogan flew
out of Turkey on Monday - on a four-day visit to north Africa - he
dismissed the protests, saying they would have died down before he
returned.
However, protests continued, with police on Wednesday
evening using tear gas and water cannon to disperse demonstrators in
Ankara's central Kizilay Square.
The situation was quieter in Istanbul, for the first time since the unrest began last Friday.
It
was a heavy-handed police response to a peaceful demonstration in
Istanbul that sparked nationwide anti-government protests denouncing PM
Erdogan, who has been in power since 2002.
Most of the anger has
been directed at the prime minister who is accused of becoming
increasingly authoritarian and seeking to force conservative Islamic
values on Turkey, a mainly Muslim but constitutionally secular nation.
But Mr Erdogan has dismissed the protesters as "extremists".
Turkey's
Nobel Prize-winning novelist Orhan Pamuk blamed the government for the
unrest in a scathing article published online by the Hurriyet daily news
organisation.
He denounced the authorities for having failed to
consult the public over plans to redevelop the Istanbul park, the issue
that sparked the initial protests on Friday.
"This insensitive policy is no doubt part of the ever more authoritarian and repressive attitude of the government," he wrote.
Two
other people have been killed in the seven days of unrest nationwide,
according to doctors and officials, who say more than 4,000 people have
been injured, 43 of them seriously, as police used tear gas, pepper
spray and water cannon on the protesters.
The Turkish government,
while acknowledging some police excesses, has defending its handling of
the crisis, insisting: "Turkey is not a second-class democracy."
Turkey's Western allies have voiced concern in recent days over the police violence.
Turkey Protests Continue As Erdogan Returns
