Following violent police attacks on protesters in Taksim Square, Istanbul, a 'general strike' has once again been called by the main 'left' Turkish unions, KESK (public sector), DİSK (private sector), and the doctors, dentists, and engineers associations, and is set to take place today, 18th June. This follows on from the strike of 13 days ago organized by the same unions, and again we can expect to see over a million workers joining the strike. Strike can be expected in health, education, and municipalities, some government offices as well as parts of the private sector where DİSK is strong such as ports, tyre factories, and the gas and electric sector. Interestingly, some İstanbul branches of Türk-İş, the main union, confederation have also called for a strike, which would lead us to expect a slightly higher turnout that the just less than half a million who struck on 5th June. Interior Minister Güler has stated that the strikes are illegal, and that public sector workers who join them will have to 'face the consequences', and Deputy Prime Minister Arınç has stated that if the Police can not stop the protestors, the army will take on the duty. Yet after nearly three weeks of protests with over 3,000 arrests, 7,500 injured over 50 of them critically, and at least seven dead, the protests particularly in the twos in cities, Istanbul and Ankara, show no signs of dying down.

Upon his return from North Africa, Tayip Erdoğan, the Prime Minister continued to stress his determination to stop the protests despite the more conciliatory line that had been taken by some members of his party during his absence. He was met at the airport by thousands of his supporters, aided by his party laying on free buses, and the metro working until 4 a.m. Tayip's hard line seems to have caused some jitters within the markets with the stock market falling by 5% on the day of his return, and the Turkish Lira recording its biggest single day fall in years. Moody's, the ratings agency, has also warned that the continuation of protests will put Turkey's credit rating at serious risk, which itself led to a further stock exchange fall of 1.7%.

Despite the financial worries, despite unease within his own camp, and despite the fact that even the police seem to have reservations about the actions, with Police Union boss Faruk Sezer claiming that six İstanbul policemen had committed suicide during the protests due to the situation, Tayip seems determined to push things further and further towards confrontation. To a background of reports coming in of AKP supporters attacking demonstrators in provincial towns, the Prime Minister decided to organise his owns demonstrations to show that “even patience has an end”. On Saturday 15th following a demonstration of tens of thousands in Sincan, an Islamic suburb of Ankara, police launched a violent attack on demonstrators in Taksim square. With 1,000 extra riot police flown in from cities in the East, and additional water cannons, and personnel provided by the Jandarma, police forced protestors from the square. European Union Minister, Egemen Bağış later declared that “everyone who enters the square will be considered by police to be a supporter or member of a terrorist organisation.

Following this KESK declared on Sunday that they would strike on the 17th, having already made a statement to the effect that they would bring their members out were there to be attacks on the demonstrators in Taksim. Later they were joined by DİSK, the professional associations, and İstanbul branches of Türk-İş, as mentioned above. Violent demonstrations continued in Ankara, where police attacked the funeral of a demonstrator murdered three days previously. Erdoğan held a demonstration which pro-government media reported was attended by hundreds of thousands of people in İstanbul, again in a conservative area away from the centre of the city. Following thismeeting there was an attack on a CHP (main opposition party) building in İstanbul by a gang throwing stones and chanting AKP slogans. Erdoğan intends to carry on these meetings to rally the populance behind him, and will hold meetings in Kayseri, Erzurum, and Samsun, major cities in Anatolia, next weekend.

At the time of writing CNN Türk is reporting that there are 800,000 people on strike today, and that demonstrators in İstanbul are gathering and preparing to march upon Taksim.

devrim