Turkey: Operation to Gezi Park is a crime against humanity

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.” Police had intervened in the Taksim Square earlier today, entering Gezi Park for the first time after two weeks.