Protests continue to grow across Turkey today, with officials expressing surprise that a half-hearted apology by the deputy prime minister hadn’t magically caused the large number of grievances to go away.
Instead the protesters, with the backing of union leaders, are demanding that the police chiefs of several of the cities were the bloodiest crackdowns took place be immediately ousted. There is no indication that this is even being considered.
The crackdowns have left at least two protesters dead and over 2,300 wounded, with large numbers of demonstrators detained on a myriad of pretexts, mostly centering on their protesting being personally insulting to Prime Minister Erdogan.
Police in Izmir, a port city, arrested 25 people today for postings on Twitters which mostly centered on the location of police blockades. They are being charged with “disinformation” despite the posts apparently being accurate. Officials also said the Twitter users are being held on “suspicion of stirring insurrection.”
