It took 17 days for Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to finally meet representatives of Gezi Park protesters, but two points made it questionable even before it got started: Erdogan asked today, June 12, for his interior minister to end the protests within 24 hours, and the police carried out last night, June 11, probably the most intensive crackdown at Istanbul’s Taksim Square since the demonstrations started on May 27.
The Turkish Medical Association reported that about 2,000 people were injured at last night’s events. As a result, Taksim Solidarity Group (TSG) canceled its attendance at the meeting and stated that those who talk to the prime minister cannot represent them. “While police violence continues at Gezi Park and its surroundings, these meetings won’t provide any results,” TSG said.
The meeting with Erdogan and those protesters — who openly stated that they do not have the authority to represent people at Taksim or elsewhere in the country — lasted five hours. Deputy Prime Minister Huseyin Celik, announced that Erdogan will take the issue of the Gezi Park development project to referendum. Ipek Akpinar, who spoke on behalf of those attending the meeting, however, preferred not to comment on the referendum issue but said they expect the government to take action on police actions that deviated from rule of law and caused injury. Celik, on the other hand, told the reporters that about 90% of those attending the meeting expressed support for the idea of taking the Gezi Park construction to referendum.
As the news broke, the reaction in Istanbul and Ankara remained unclear at first. “Istanbul is an AKP stronghold. By taking this to referendum, Erdogan is making sure that he will win against us again,” one protester told Al-Monitor. Many on the street remain worried about a police crackdown. What is more striking is that as the news of referendum broke out, people in Ankara started to flood the streets in massive numbers; many others remaining at home took to their windows, clanging pots and pans or honking their car horns.
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