Posted on 06/04/2013 5:52:06 AM PDT by Nextrush
After five days of rubber bullets (not commonly reported in the MSM), tear gas and water cannon aimed at them at least some of the demonstrators are getting an official apology from Turkey's government.
The Deputy Prime Minister of the Islamic regieme Bulent Arinc says police overreacted when they fired tear gas at the environmentalist protestors in Istanbul last Friday.
Sky News quotes Arinc as saying "The excessive violence that was used in the first instance against those who were behaving with respect to the environment is wrong and unfair. I apologise to those citizens....But I don't think we owe an apology to those who have caused damage in the streets and tried to prevent people's freedom."
The protest has gone way beyond the environmental issue becoming a general revolt against as a creeping Islamisation of Turkish society.
Arinc appeared to acknowledge that when he said the government "respects and is sensitive towards different lifestyles" and he urged people and organizations to stop the protests. And he added what may interpreted as threat: "That is what we expect from them."
Two people have died in the protests including a 22 year old man shot in a southern city.
American journalist Claire Berlinski, of The Manhattan Institute's quarterly "City Journal", who lives in Istanbul collected information from hospitals near the center of protests at Taksim Square...."A 22-year-old male has lost his left eye due to a plastic bullet...A 22-year old male patient has taken a frontal hit in the head and suffered a fractured skull and is under close watch due to acute hematoma diagnosis....Over 100 injured patients were treated. Of these, nine suffer from significant trauma. Of these, one suffered trauma in the testicle, one subdural hematoma (brain), and two trauma of the left eye. One was operated on and has lost all eyesight.
Berlinski said in her post yesterday: "It is confirmed that rubber bullets have knocked out the eyes of at least six people."
She gives a little background of what is propelling the five days of revolt in Turkey.
"Of late, almost every sector of the electorate has felt unease about one part or another of Erdogan's agenda. Restrictive new alcohol legislation, rammed through parliament, as usual, with contempt for the minority opposition, has prompted outrage; the so-called peace process with the PKK, which no one understands, has caused great unease. Anxiety is growing as well, not only about press censorship, but also about prosecution of those who insult government officials or 'Islamic values' on social media."
As for Erdogan himself, yesterday he suggested that foreign powers may be behind the revolt in the streets and said that Turkey's intelligence agencies are investigating.
Also, Secretary of State John Kerry said the United States is following the situation closely and was troubled by reports of excessive force by police.
A few weeks ago Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan was an honored guest of Barack Obama at the White House.
Now he is being ridiculed by his own people angered by the police crackdown on their protests being dubbed "Chemical Tayyip" over the tear gas barrages aimed at them.
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