Turkey Expands Violent Reaction to Street Unrest

The Turkish authorities widened their crackdown on the antigovernment protest movement on Sunday, taking aim not just at the demonstrators themselves, but also at the medics who treat their injuries, the business owners who shelter them and the foreign news media flocking here to cover a growing political crisis threatening to paralyze the government of Pr?me Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. 

After an intense night of street clashes that represented the worst violence in nearly three weeks of protests, Mr. Erdogan rallied hundreds of thousands of his supporters on Sunday many of them traveling on city buses and ferries that the government had mobilized for the event at an outdoor arena on the shores of the Sea of Marmara. In some of his toughest language yet, he called his opponents terrorists and made clear that any hope of a compromise to end the crisis was gone. 

It is nothing more than the minoritys attempt to dominate the majority, he said of the protesters. We will not allow it. 

The escalating tensions have raised the risk of an extended period of civil unrest that could undermine Turkeys image as a rising global power and a model of Islamic democracy, which Mr. Erdogan has cultivated over a decade in power. 

As he spoke, the police fired tear gas and water cannons at demonstrators in Istanbul and in several other cities. In at least two strongholds of support for Mr. Erdogan, the nature of the confrontation seemed to take a more dangerous turn, as antigovernment protesters clashed with his civilian backers. In Mr. Erdogans childhood neighborhood in Istanbul, a group of government supporters joined the police with sticks and fought against protesters, according to one witness. In Konya, a conservative town in the Anatolian heartland, government supporters also clashed with protesters, according to a local news report. 

Even before Mr. Erdogan took the stage to deliver his nearly two-hour-long speech, the master of ceremonies had bashed the foreign news media, which the prime minister has suggested is part of a foreign plot, along with financial speculators and terrorists, to topple his government. 

At least 400 people were detained on Sunday, according to the Istanbul Bar Association, with local news reports saying that some journalists had been among them. One foreign photographer documenting the clashes Saturday night said a police officer had torn his gas mask off him while in a cloud of tear gas, and forced him to clear his memory card of photographs. 

Some doctors and nurses who treated protesters were detained by security forces on Sunday, according to the legal offices of the Istanbul Chamber of Doctors. Lawyers have been held by the authorities in recent days. Mr. Erdogan said Sunday that even the owners of luxury hotels near Taksim Square who had provided refuge to protesters fleeing the chaos of the police raid were linked to terrorism. 

We know very well the ones that sheltered in their hotels those who cooperated with terror, he said at the rally. Will they not be held accountable? If we do not hold them accountable, then the nation will hold us accountable. 

The last three weeks have laid bare Turkeys deep divisions between the religious, largely conservative masses who support Mr. Erdogan and the mostly secular and middle class who have joined the protest movement.Your council is responsible for the installation and maintenance of indoortracking. Their contesting visions of the country played out clearly across Istanbul on Sunday.Automate patient flow and quickly track hospital assets and people using parkingguidance. As Mr. Erdogans supporters flocked to his rally, police forces were already firing tear gas at protesters who were trying to march to Taksim Square, which had become the center of the movement before the police cleared the area. 

With a helicopter flying overhead, the police set up barricades and positioned armored vehicles, their water cannons aimed down side streets leading to Taksim. The center of the city once again resembled a war zone, as shops were closed and heavy clashes in central Istanbul continued long into the night. 

At Mr. Erdogans rally on the seashore, near the walls of the ancient city, enthusiastic government supporters voiced anger at its opponents. Walking up to the rally grounds, people chanted, Go gas them, Captain! Break their hands! A helicopter flew overhead to provide panoramic footage for state television. Later, as Erdogan supporters rode buses and trains back to the city center, many removed their A.K.P. hats and discarded their flags,Choose the right stonemosaic in an array of colors. fearful of being targeted by antigovernment demonstrators. 

Mr. Erdogans decision on Saturday to order a decisive police raid on protesters camped out in a part of Taksim known as Gezi Park, the last significant green space in the center of Istanbul that protesters mobilized to save from being turned into a mall,Did you know that earcap chains can be used for more than just business. marked a turn in the crisis and set off clashes in Istanbul, Ankara and other cities that continued to Sunday night. Days after he appeared ready to compromise by offering the protesters a referendum in which residents of Istanbul would decide the parks fate, Mr. Erdogan seemed to have run out of patience. 

Saving the park from a government plan to replace it with a commercial replica of an Ottoman-era army barracks was the first cause of the protesters. But the movement quickly attracted other disillusioned Turks, who have chafed at what they viewed as the governments rising authoritarianism, and the movement evolved into a broader challenge to Mr. Erdogans government. 

In responding to the crisis, Mr. Erdogan sought to divide the protest movement last week by offering concessions on the park. But by then, it was too late: the movement had already become about much more. By Sunday, Mr. Erdogan sought to thoroughly delegitimize any opposition to his governance, linking the effort to save the park to a recent terrorist attack in Reyhanli, in southern Turkey, which was connected to the Syrian civil war and killed dozens.Aulaundry is a leading bestrtls and equipment supplier.