Government websites hit as Turkey protests continue
June 3, 2013, 4:19 pm

Protesters carry a wounded demonstrator as clashes with police continue in Istanbul [Getty Images]

Mehmet Ayvalitas, 20, was hit by a car driver, who ignored warnings in demonstrations in Umraniye district, the TTB said.

The victim, a member of Socialist Solidarity Platform, is the first confirmed death in protests that swept Turkey during the past days.

The union accused the government of conducting a provocative agenda, citing remarks of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan who kept a hard line over demonstrations that were triggered after the police broke up a peaceful sit-in last week.

The TTB called on the Turkish government to pull back all police forces and release all those detained in the protests.

At the same time, several Anonymous messages in its Twitter blog provide links to the sites, including those of President Turkish President Abdullah Gul and Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party, that have been denied public access.

Hackers normally use distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks to knock their targets offline.

Turkey’s Hürriyet Daily News reported on Monday that some Turkish media websites have also been targeted by Anonymous for “for failing to adequately cover the events.”

The planned demolition of Gezi Park in central Istanbul sparked mass rallies in the city on Saturday, prompting police to use tear gas and water cannons to disperse the protesters. Violent clashes between protesters and police continued in Istanbul and the capital, Ankara, on Sunday.

The rally in Istanbul triggered more than 230 separate protests in 67 cities across the country, according to Sky News.

A total of 173 people were injured in clashes between protesters and policemen in the nationwide protests in the past week, according to Turkish authorities on Monday.

Turkish Interior Minister Muammer Guler said at least 115 police officers and 58 protesters were injured in the demonstrations which were staged last week by a group of protesters in Istanbul Taksim’s Gezi Park to stand guard against the uprooting of trees.

Turkey’s Interior Minister Muammer Guler said on Sunday that more than 1,700 people had been arrested.

The United States and the European Union and have already urged the Turkish government to exercise restraint, while Amnesty International has condemned the use of tear gas by Turkish police as “a breach of international human rights standards.”

Source: Agencies