Thousands Against IMF Clash with Cops in Instanbul
Corsan | 07.10.2009 03:12 | Globalisation | Social Struggles | Workers' Movements | World
Turkish policeand transnational and local protesters clashed in Taksim Square and surrounding neighbourhoods in central Istanbul today
Nearly 6,000 people gathered starting at 10 a.m. in İstanbul's Taksim Square, including members and representatives of public unions and civil society organizations including the Confederation of Revolutionary Workers' Unions (DİSK), the Confederation of Public Sector Trade Unions (KESK), the Turkish Doctors Union (TTB) and the Turkish Union of Engineers and Architects' Chambers (TMMOB). The protestors planned to walk from Taksim to the Harbiye Congress Center, where the IMF-World Bank meetings are taking place, in a protest that started somewhat peacefully in the morning.
However, police intervened during the release of a press statement by the unions in the morning, when some of the groups started walking toward Harbiye. Police acted as soon as the protestors decided to march to the area, turning the scene into a battlefield within minutes.
Riot police, armed with shields, fired tear gas canisters and rushed to disperse protesters in Taksim Square, only a few hundred meters from the IMF-World Bank meetings. "Long live freedom. IMF, get out of our city," protesters chanted.
Police detained around 100 people, some for throwing Molotov cocktails near the convention center.
The protestors were determined, repeatedly returning to the main square, throwing Molotov cocktails at police and attacking water cannons, after retreating into the back alleys of Taksim every time police used water cannons. Some protestors attacked police with iron marbles fired by slingshots, weapons that can potentially be deadly.
For the first time, each officer had a number on his/her helmet that can be used to identify the officer.
Foreign protestors from international anti-globalization groups also participated in the demonstration.
The main square and surrounding streets returned to normal by midday, although police were still pursuing small groups of protesters, who appeared to be largely Turkish, in side streets.
Hundreds of area residents and commuters using the Taksim metro were also negatively affected by the tear gas.
Shopkeepers, acting on recommendations from the police, did not let protestors or innocent passersby in buildings, closing their shutters. A large number of stores in the area were also damaged during yesterday's clashes.
The front windows of several banks were smashed. Police later led out staff and customers who had been hiding on the first floor of a bank building. The screens of cash machines at several banks were also smashed.
This was the biggest protest that has occurred since Police Chief Hüseyin Çapkın took over.
However, police intervened during the release of a press statement by the unions in the morning, when some of the groups started walking toward Harbiye. Police acted as soon as the protestors decided to march to the area, turning the scene into a battlefield within minutes.
Riot police, armed with shields, fired tear gas canisters and rushed to disperse protesters in Taksim Square, only a few hundred meters from the IMF-World Bank meetings. "Long live freedom. IMF, get out of our city," protesters chanted.
Police detained around 100 people, some for throwing Molotov cocktails near the convention center.
The protestors were determined, repeatedly returning to the main square, throwing Molotov cocktails at police and attacking water cannons, after retreating into the back alleys of Taksim every time police used water cannons. Some protestors attacked police with iron marbles fired by slingshots, weapons that can potentially be deadly.
For the first time, each officer had a number on his/her helmet that can be used to identify the officer.
Foreign protestors from international anti-globalization groups also participated in the demonstration.
The main square and surrounding streets returned to normal by midday, although police were still pursuing small groups of protesters, who appeared to be largely Turkish, in side streets.
Hundreds of area residents and commuters using the Taksim metro were also negatively affected by the tear gas.
Shopkeepers, acting on recommendations from the police, did not let protestors or innocent passersby in buildings, closing their shutters. A large number of stores in the area were also damaged during yesterday's clashes.
The front windows of several banks were smashed. Police later led out staff and customers who had been hiding on the first floor of a bank building. The screens of cash machines at several banks were also smashed.
This was the biggest protest that has occurred since Police Chief Hüseyin Çapkın took over.
Corsan
Comments
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What international anti globalisation groups?
07.10.2009 08:45
internationalist
Day 2 of streets demos, arrests etc - video and reports
07.10.2009 12:32
Cops and water cannon, two petrol bombs thrown at banks
Police break up second day of anti-IMF protest
(AP) – 1.30pm
ISTANBUL — Protesters smashed shop and bank windows, attacked a police vehicle and hurled stones and fire bombs at police in a second day of protests Wednesday against the International Monetary Fund.
Police confronted the protesters by firing warning shots in the air, using water canons and tear and pepper gas.
The crowd of some 150 people — most members of fringe left-wing groups — gathered about half a mile (a kilometer) away from the venue of the annual meetings of the IMF and World Bank being held in Istanbul, shouting "IMF get out!"
They shattered the windows of a Burger King fast food restaurant as well as windows of several Turkish and foreign banks in Istanbul's Sisli district. An Associated Press photographer said protesters hurled fire bombs and stones at police.
A group of protesters then made their way to a nearby highway and threw stones at a police vehicle driving past. Police inside the car fired warning shots into the air to try and keep the protesters at bay.
Outnumbered by police, the protesters ran down side streets but regrouped quickly in an attempt to break through police lines and march to a complex where the IMF and World Bank were wrapping up discussions on internal reforms and the fragile recovery from the global economic meltdown.
At least 20 demonstrators were arrested.
On Tuesday, police detained some 100 people following a similar protest in which masked demonstrators shattered shop and bank windows and hurled stones at riot police.
Last week, a student journalist threw a shoe at IMF Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn at a university in Istanbul. The shoe missed him.
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Bosnian premier's car fire-bombed in Istanbul protest
07th. October 2009. | 11:46
The chairman of the Bosnia-Hercegovina Council of Ministers, Nikola Spiric, was yesterday targeted by demonstrators protesting in Istanbul during the annual meeting of the IMF and World Bank.
The chairman of the Bosnia-Hercegovina Council of Ministers, Nikola Spiric, was yesterday targeted by demonstrators protesting in Istanbul during the annual meeting of the IMF and World Bank.
The car in which Spiric and the head of his office, Gordana Zivkovic, were being driven was attacked with a Molotov cocktail.
"No-one from the Bosnia-Hercegovina delegation, transported in two cars, was hurt," Spiric told SRNA.
According to him, the incident took place on the road between the congress centre and the hotel.
"While returning to the hotel we found ourselves in the midst of the protest, there was a considerable melee, they were hurling Molotov cocktails at VPR vehicles, but luckily it all ended without consequences," Spiric said and added that the Bosnia-Hercegovina consulate would request official information about this incident from the Turkish authorities.
The foreign ministries of Bosnia-Hercegovina and Turkey have been informed about this incident.
Spiric said that IMF and World Bank meetings were often accompanied by protests but concluded that the participants in the Istanbul summit were safe.
Police in Istanbul intervened with tear gas and water cannon in order to break up the demonstration in Taksim Square in the city centre. Youths had erected barricades from metal containers and supermarket trolleys, from which they hurled Molotov cocktails.
The demonstrators, mostly university and high school students, had rallied to the call of leftist organizations and trade unions, shouting slogans "IMF - friend of employers, enemy of workers", "A different world is possible", "Your democracy is a dictatorship, your economy is slavery, go away bandits!"
MR
More riot pics
07.10.2009 16:18
;-)
Black Flame
Homepage:
http://www.lahaine.org/index.php?p=40491
Endless videos here
08.10.2009 10:55
DipShit
More and more photos and videos
09.10.2009 10:40
pictures:
Video's:
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As addition posted under the article: shoe at IMF director:
Attack on Burger King:
Molotov attack on banks:
arresting demonstrators:
Aktions 06.10.2009
Police footage
Second day Istanbul 07.10.2009 Istanbul
Video
rticleID=958029&Date=07.10.2009&CategoryID=77
The group is lead bij Partizan, TKP/ML, TIKB and other communist
organizations. In a confrontation the police can only hold ground by
using weapons... 200 Persons succeeded in entering the red zone were the
summit is taking place
lis.mudahalesi/546538.0/index.html
Turkisch fascists and police ar hunting demonstrators
leID=957890&Date=06.10.2009&CategoryID=77
Pictures:
and
Windowlicker