Turkey Police Escalate Crackdown as Erdogan Rallies Support

Police in Istanbul stepped up their attacks on protesters, detaining hundreds amid some of the worst violence this month, as Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told a mass rally a few kilometers away that those behind the unrest will be made to pay.

The clashes spread in all directions out of Taksim Square yesterday, a day after police moved in to clear demonstrators out of Gezi Park where they had been camping out to oppose a development plan. Late yesterday, police were firing tear gas along side streets off the square and nearby districts, beating and arresting protesters. The Istanbul Bar Association said 350 were detained, according to Hurriyet daily. Scattered and bedraggled groups of demonstrators sought to escape or regroup and head back toward Taksim as a thunderstorm lashed the city.