Thursday, March 13, 2014

Thousands clash with police during teenager’s burial

ISTANBUL: Riot police clashed with demonstrators in several Turkish cities for a second day on Wednesday as mourners buried a teenager wounded in protests last summer, unrest which a defiant Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan cast as a plot against the state. Police fired water cannon, tear gas and rubber pellets on a major Istanbul avenue to stop tens of thousands of people chanting anti-government slogans from reaching the central Taksim square. There were similar scenes in the centre of the capital Ankara and in the Aegean coastal city of Izmir. Berkin Elvan's death on Tuesday after nine months in a coma touched off the worst unrest in Turkey since the nationwide anti-government demonstrations last June, adding to Erdogan's woes as he battles a graft scandal that has become one of the biggest challenges of his decade in power. Erdogan, campaigning around the country for March 30 local elections, failed to comment on Elvan's death at two campaign rallies on Wednesday, railing instead against the protesters and saying they would be silenced at the ballot box. “Trying to set fire to the streets 18 days before elections is not a democratic stance,” he told throngs of supporters at a rally in the southeastern city of Mardin.—Reuters

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