Protesters clashed with police in cities across Turkey yesterday after the death of a 15-year-old boy who was hit in the head by a tear-gas canister during anti-government demonstrations last summer.
Police fired water cannon and tear gas at thousands of demonstrators, another pre-election headache for Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, already battling a graft scandal which has become one of the biggest challenges of his decade in power.
Berkin Elvan, then 14, got caught up in street battles in Istanbul between police and protesters on June 16 while going to buy bread for his family.
He slipped into a coma and became a rallying point for government opponents, who held regular vigils at the hospital where he lay in intensive care.
Yesterday evening, police fired water cannon and tear gas in Ankara’s central Kizilay Square to scatter several thousand protesters who chanted: “Government of Erdogan, government of corruption, resign, resign”.
The police pursued the protesters into sidestreets where small clashes continued.
There was similar police intervention against thousands of protesters in Istanbul’s central Istiklal street, one of dozens of places across Turkey where posts on social media had called for protests yesterday evening.
In the southern city of Adana, protesters threw stones aimed fireworks at police lines as water cannon vehicles advanced against them, spraying water.
Large numbers also protested in the western cities of Izmir and Eskisehir in the most extensive protests since last summer’s unrest.
Residents in some Istanbul districts banged pots and pans with spoons from the windows of their apartment blocks, reviving a form of protest popular during the summer.
Istanbul and Ankara have both seen protests in recent weeks against what demonstrators regard as Erdogan’s authoritarian reaction to the graft scandal, which has included new laws tightening internet controls and handing government greater influence over the appointment of judges and prosecutors.
Berkin Elvan got caught up in street battles while going to buy bread
Crowds chanted “murderer Erdogan” and “the murderer state will be brought to account” as mourners carried Elvan’s coffin, wrapped in red cloth and strewn with red carnations, to a “cemevi”, an Alevi place of worship, in central Istanbul.
Alevis are a minority in mainly Sunni Muslim Turkey who espouse a liberal version of Islam and have often been at odds with Erdogan’s Islamist-rooted government.
Among the throng of up to 1,000 people, some waved plain red flags, while shopkeepers in the Okmeydani district pulled down their shutters as a mark of respect.