Second Day of Clashes in Istanbul - Bigger Police Brutality, Further Arrests

* Click here for footage of the police intervention.

After massive clashes between protestors and the police in a demonstration against the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank (WB) on Tuesday, members of the Alliance Against IMF-WB wanted to meet in Ergenekon Avenue close to Istanbul's central district of Taksim yesterday (7 October). The police arrested another 25 people. A lawyer told bianet that the arrested demonstrators were kept in a police vehicle in a park in Taksim.

The group of protestors intended to walk to Harbiye where the IMF and World Bank meeting took place. Upon the police intervention they drew back to side streets. Clashes in the districts of Feriköy and Kurtuluş still continued during the afternoon.

It was reported that the police made use of their firearms against demonstrators who fled to the popular district of Mecidiyeköy.

A person watching the scenes informed bianet that the police erected a barricade in Harbiye and that some people passing the street were taken into a police vehicle.

A group of demonstrators in Şişli blocked the entrance to the Bosporus Bridge for some time. When the police arrived the protestors threw stones at the police cars. The police withdrew from the scene by using firearms. In Topkapı stones were thrown to a policeman on a motorcycle.

The demonstrators broke windows of some banks in Mecidiyeköy and Şişli and threw Molotov cocktails to a couple of ATMs.

Istanbul Governor Muammer Güler announced that 25 people were arrested yesterday and 103 people the day before, among them 22 children. Güler explicitly mentioned that on the first day of the clashes the protestors had attacked the police.

The alliance formed by 29 left-wing political parties and groups gathered yesterday at 10.00 pm in Pangaltı. They were going to hang banners with "IMF-WB get out!" on a building opposite the Armenian Agos Newspaper but the police interfered. It was reported that 10 people were arrested.

On Tuesday the police went in hard against a meeting of 2000 people on Taksim Square, organized by DİSK (Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions), KESK (Confederation of Trade Unions of Public Employees), TTB (Turkey's Union of Bar Associations) and TMMOB (Turkey Union of Chambers of Architects and Engineers). The police used tear gas and water cannons. 95 people were arrested. The Contemporary Jurists Association (ÇHD) told bianet that together with unregistered arrests the total number rose to 200. (BÇ/VK)