Taksim Solidarity Platform condemns brutal raid, says hundreds are injured by Erdogan regime policeforces.

Taksim Solidarity Platform condemns brutal raid, says hundreds are injured by Erdogan regime policeforces.(HD).

The Taksim Solidarity Platform that represents the Gezi Park protesters has condemned the brutal police crackdown on the Taksim Square, adding that hundreds of people were injured and many had been detained. The platform also contradicted the officials’ statements that said that 44 people were injured, adding that Istanbul’s governor “had lost all credibility.” It also said that police showed a “warlike violence” during the attack.

“There are dozens of injured shot with rubber bullets or who couldn’t go to the hospital,” the platform said in a statement today adding that infirmaries set up at Divan hotel which stands at the Harbiye entrance of Gezi Park.

“The attack with rubber bullets, intense tear gas and stun grenades at a moment when there were a lot of women, kids and elderly people were at the park is a crime against humanity,” the statement said.

Police’s heavy-handed attack to evacuate Gezi Park came only an hour after Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s ultimatum to protesters, giving them a day to end demonstrations. Protesters had earlier decided to continue their sit-in at the park and debating on limiting the number of tents at the park.

The Taksim Solidarity Platform called on the end of police intervention that was underway nearly six hours after the evacuation of the park. “The brutal attack of the security forces should be stopped. The government will be the sole responsible of what will happen today and tomorrow,” the platform said.

The platform also appealed for letting the injured to be provided help by doctors. “[Police] should stop preventing the works of volunteer doctors,” it also added.

“This attack that took place at a moment when there was no demonstration at the park shows that the prime minister’s intention is to increase the social polarization and satisfy his ambition of authority by oppressing his people,” the statement also said.

German Green Party co-chair Claudia Roth, who was at the surroundings of the Taksim Square when the police intervened to evacuate the Gezi Park, has been affected by the tear gas fired by the security officers.

Roth took shelter like many protesters at the Divan hotel which faces the Harbiye entrance of Gezi Park. Doctors and volunteers gave the first medical aid to protesters affected by the intense tear gas bombardment.

The German politician was also significantly affected by tear gas and received medical attention.

The hotel was encircled by the police who fired tear gas inside its doors. Many protesters were reported to be severely injured. Ambulances were seen picking injured and unconscious people.

"It was like war," Roth told the German private broadcaster ZDF after the police raid to Gezi Park. "I am a living witness. They fired tear gas without sparing women and children," she said.

A group of deputies from the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) have staged a sit-in June 15 to prevent the police’s intervention against thousands of protesters that had gathered in Ankara after the heavy-handed evacuation of Istanbul’s Gezi Park triggered an outcry across the country.

The police’s brutal operation against the Gezi Park protesters is a crime against humanity, the main opposition party’s leader has said, accusing Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of intending “to kill Turkey”.

Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, head of the Republican People’s Party (CHP) called on all civil servants not to obey Erdoğan’s unlawful orders.

“Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is intending to kill Turkey because of his dictator mentality and personal ambition. Enforcing the orders of a prime minister who would not hesitate to drag these people into war, constitute a crime according to international norms,” Kılıçdaroğlu said in a written statement he made at 11 p.m.

The police’s operation is the reflection of inhuman and systematic torture on the streets, Kılıçdaroğlu said, adding that Saturday’s move by the police was not only a crime of democracy but a crime against humanity. “Those who committed this crime will never be forgiven by the people, the history and humanity’s conscience,” he said, and urged civil servants to be aware that they would be counted as Erdoğan’s partners in crime and would one day be taken before the court.

“I call my people: The most important power you have in this resistance is your rightness and peacefulness. You are right and strong. You should know that the world’s common humanity conscience is proud of you.” Read the full story here, more here.