Turkish Police Push Into Square Near Park Protest

Turkish Police Push Into Square Near Park Protest

ISTANBUL — A large force of riot police entered Taksim Square early on Tuesday, firing tear gas grenades and using water cannons to disperse demonstrators who have occupied the square for more than a week as part of a protest to save a nearby park that the government wants to develop.

Television footage of the ongoing operation showed protesters hurling stones and Molotov cocktails at police vehicles as security officers responded with tear gas.

It appeared that relatively few protesters were in the square as the police moved in and many retreated to the park.

Huseyin Avni Mutlu, the governor of Istanbul, said in a Twitter message that the police would remove banners and posters. He said the activists who have been occupying Gezi Park for more than two weeks would not be affected.

“Gezi Park and Taksim will never be touched,” he said. “This morning you are in the safe hands of your police brothers.”

The police also tried to calm protesters. “Young people, please, stop hurling stones,” a police officer announced over a loudspeaker. “We are not going to touch Gezi Park.”

Despite that assurance, a group of police officers made its way into the park to pull down posters and banners. They were met with protesters chanting, “Everywhere Taksim, everywhere resistance,” but no confrontation ensued.

Television footage showed at least eight protesters standing behind metal shields against the pressure of water cannons, and CNN Turk reported that some demonstrators in Gezi Park had tried to persuade others outside to stop throwing rocks at the police. Other footage showed hundreds of activists inside the park wearing gas masks or swimming goggles and spraying soothing liquids into the eyes and mouths of people who had been affected by the tear gas around Taksim Square.

Official figures were not available, but news reports said dozens of people were injured in clashes that began around 7 a.m. At least three ambulances drove into the square to gather the injured, television images showed.

The operation came a day after the government appeared to change tactics, with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan agreeing to meet with protest leaders. Opposition to the razing of the park was a catalyst for the violent antigovernment demonstrations nationwide that began more than a week ago, escalating into the current political crisis.

The meeting between the prime minister and the protest leaders is scheduled for Wednesday, said Bulent Arinc, a deputy prime minister and government spokesman.

Mr. Arinc did not specify who among the protest leaders would attend. Still, it was the first public sign that Mr. Erdogan, a popular but stubborn leader who has broadly denounced the protests as the work of looters and thugs, was willing to directly engage at least some of the organizers in a dialogue.

“Our prime minister gave an appointment to some that led the events, and have been there from the very first day,” Mr. Arinc said in a televised statement. “I assume he will be meeting some of them on Wednesday.”

The Radikal newspaper said the list of people to meet Mr. Erdogan included Mucella Yapici, the spokeswoman of Taksim Solidarity, and representatives of Greenpeace and the Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly, two nongovernmental organizations.

Mr. Arinc spoke Monday after a nearly seven-hour cabinet meeting during which members of Mr. Erdogan’s pro-Islamic Justice and Development Party discussed the protests, which began peacefully on May 31 but grew into sometimes violent confrontations in more than 60 cities across the country.

On Tuesday afternoon, protesters were standing behind a burning barricade in Tarlabasi Boulevard, one of the main streets leading to Taksim Square. Inside the square, police officers were standing guard around Cumhuriyet monument, an important national symbol celebrating the birth of the Turkish republic, which the police had earlier cleared of protesters’ posters and banners.