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PM Erdogan Defended Police Violence
"Democratization Package from AKP to EU: Gas bomb, pepper gas, baton " (Cumhuriyet, May 7, 2008) Speaking at his party’s parliamentary group meeting PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused the labour unions of exploitation, and defended the police that turned the holiday into hell for the workers and the people in Istanbul. Erdogan asked, "Who are the police? Did they come from the space? Are these not our sons who are in charge of securing the lives of the people of this country without discrimination? What is the reason for this hostility against the police?" Erdogan said, “Why is it that nothing negative happened during the celebration of Hak-Is (an Islamist labor union)? Nobody [in the media] shows the Hak-Is celebration, but only the ones in Taksim [Istanbul] and Sihhiye [Ankara]. Of course their excuse is that Hak-Is is pro-AKP. So that means whenever there is no fighting and violence they are pro-AKP, whenever there is fighting and violence they are anti-AKP”. Erdogan continued to slam the trade unions and said that they don’t have a mass [of followers] behind them, “They couldn’t gather even 500 or 1000 people together in Sisli” [that had turned into a war zone]. Source: Cumhuriyet, Turkey, May 7, 2008
Posted at: 2008-05-07
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