Death of Gezi Park bystander ignites Turkish streets

ISTANBUL — Heavily-armed Turkish security forces, bolstered by police water cannons, shut down central Istanbul Wednesday amidst the largest protests since last summer's month-long anti-government protests in Gezi Park. In a show of force akin to a military operation, security forces fanned out across the city to quell public anger against Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Spurred on by the death of a teenager, Berkin Elvan, who succumbed to wounds sustained by a police tear-gas canister during anti-government protests last June, protesters forcefully called for Erdogan to step down.
 
The police lockdown came hours after tens of thousands of people poured into the streets of central Istanbul for Elvan’s funeral. His family says the 15-year-old boy was out buying bread on June 16 when he got mixed up in anti-government protests. They say he was shot in the head by a police tear-gas canister and fell into a coma from which he died early Tuesday. 
 
Amid deepening political polarization fermented by an ongoing corruption scandal that has implicated Erdogan and his closest confidants, angry mourners lined the streets of Istanbul. Marching under anti-government banners, protesters from a broad cross section of Turkish society attempted throughout the day to reoccupy Gezi Park. 

With day slipping into night, Turkish security forces in Istanbul adopted near-war footing. Thousands of riot-ready police officers and plain-clothes cops blocked the entrance to Taksim Square, adjacent to Gezi Park, but failed to stem the steady flow of protesters. Spraying anti-Erdogan slogans on storefronts and across banks, protesters provoked a heavy-handed police response. 
 
In scenes reminiscent of the month-long Gezi Park protests, demonstrators launched fireworks at police, who responded with volleys of tear gas and charges from truck-mounted water cannons. Chants of "Everywhere Taksim, everywhere revolution" and "Tayyip the murderer" rang in the cold March air. 
 
Watching the violence unfold from the terrace of a cafe overlooking Gezi Park, Omar, a 26-year-old engineer employed by a state-funded environmental organization, was listless but proud that people were on the streets once again. 
 
"In Turkey, the government kills their own," he said between long drags of a cigarette. "I work hard, pay my taxes and I don't want my money spent on tear-gas and other weapons that kill Turks. We are starting to believe that the police are against us." 
 
Elvan’s funeral was the largest in Turkey since the 2007 funeral of the slain journalist Hrant Dink. The nationwide outpouring of grief presents new challenges to Erdogan's rule. While protests have continued on a regular basis over the past eight months against the perceived authoritarianism of the prime minster, they have not succeeded in capturing the hearts and minds of ordinary Turks. Handfuls of pro-Erdogan supporters sparred with anti-government protesters throughout the evening.
 
The death of Elvan, however, has enlivened the Gezi Park protest movement and brought tens of thousands to the streets. 
 
"We have had enough," said 28-year-old Gulsin Gozkun, between chants denouncing the prime minister as a killer. "The government of Erdogan is able to get away with murder and all we have left is the decision to take to the streets."
 
Elvan's death immediately sent protesters into the streets of every major Turkish city, with the news spreading rapidly on social media. In Ankara, the Turkish capital, two bystanders were run over by police trucks carrying water cannons while attempting to cross the street. President Abdallah Gul urged security forces to exercise restraint, but injuries have been briskly reported on media outlets. Amidst heavy criticism, Gul also offered his condolences to the Elvan family. 
 
However, mourners were quick to dismiss Gul along with the prime minister. Echoing statements made by the opposition, Sulyiman Ayral of the Republican People's Party expressed frustration.
 
"The President needs to make a stand and stop the impunity of the police forces here," he said moments before riot police cleared Taksim Square. "He is simply not doing enough." 
 
Many mourners, exhausted by the continuing corruption revelations and near-weekly protests against the prime minister’s leadership, demanded police accountability above all else.
 
"The Turkish state does not have a very good record in taking responsibility for its mistakes and people are sadly aware of this fact," said Kaya Genc, an essayist and novelist based in Istanbul. "This is why they want to see a swift inquiry into a matter which they believe has the potential to be ignored if they had not taken to the streets to demand justice."

In a departure from the tightly choreographed media line, mainstream Turkish media establishments broadcast images of both Elvan's funeral and the ensuing protests. By evening, many neighborhoods in central Istanbul were in a state of near paralysis. 

"I fear for the worst," said one police officer before being harshly criticized by a superior for speaking to the press. "I would not recommend being on the streets tonight." 
 
The death of Elvan, the seventh victim of the Gezi Park protests, comes at a time of profound instability in the Turkish political spectrum. Pivotal local and municipal elections are slated for March 30 and the prime minster is counting on a strong showing for his AK Party. 

Nationwide protests have heightened fears of further unrest before the elections. The Islamist scholar Fetuallah Gulen, who lives in self-imposed exile in the United States and exercises profound influence on Turkish politics, was quick to denounce Elvan's death and accuse the government of wrongdoing. Gulen's supporters, which are numerous in the police force, have been at the heart of the corruption scandal currently unfolding in Turkey. 
 
Erdogan has denounced the corruption probe and the ongoing protests as a plot to unseat him from power after nearly 11 years of rule. While he has been able to maintain strong support among his base AK Party supporters, the sheer scale of the protests sparked by the death of Elvan has thrown Turkey into a descending spiral of chaos just two weeks before Turks head to the polls.