Actions with requirements of resignation of the government took place in all large cities of the country — Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, Antalya. The head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Muammer Gyuler declared that disorders are recorded in 48 provinces of Turkey. The prime minister of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared that requirements of demonstrators won't be met, however, he recognized that the police at dispersal of actions worked excessively rigidly.
The Turkish police detained 939 people over all country who were taking part in 90 different demonstrations in the various cities. Reuters with reference to the statement of the Minister of Internal Affairs of Turkey Muammer Gyuler reported in the evening on Saturday, June, 1, the statement was made on air of the state television. Gyuler told also that during collisions of demonstrators with police 79 people suffered.
It was reposted on June, 1 that police released from under barricades Taksim Square in Istanbul, protesters returned to it.
Plans of the authorities on building of Taksim Square and park of Gezi adjoining it became formal reason for discontent of the inhabitants of Istanbul. The park is planned to cut down and to construct shopping center and to restore barracks of times of the Turkish Empire on its place. There is 12 meter monument "Republic" erected in 1928 on the project of the Italian architect Pietro Kanonika in the center of the square. The monument symbolizes army liberator and republic establishment. The monument on Taksim Square includes sculptures of Marshals Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, Mustafa Ismet Inonu and Fevzi Chakmak and the Turkish people. Besides there were placed sculptures of Kliment Voroshilov and Mikhail Frunze according to Ataturk's instructions in gratitude for the military help of the Soviet Russia in war of 1920.
Possibly, Erdogan's supporters don't like republican symbols as they are focused on nostalgia for the Turkish Empire (as in Putin's Russia they feel nostalgic for Romanov's empire) and they prefer imperial barracks...
- I would pay attention that the Republic of Turkey is twice less than Russia on population, - the editor-in-chief of FORUM.msk Anatoly Baranov reminded. - But mass character of participation of citizens in political actions there is 10 times more. Processes are, generally, similar - protest of citizens against creeping restoration of the empire to the detriment of the republic, that is in fact it’s conservative and republican protest. For some reason it’s called “democratic” and even “liberal” in the Russian Federation, but it is semiliterate nonsense - it is a question of mass protest of adherents of the most different political forces in protection of basic republican values. Here in Turkey more citizens, than in Russia show commitment to the republic, they are more conscious there, better organized and as a whole it’s clear what they want and what they don't want. Therefore Turkey is really the republic, while Russia is the republic only on paper.
