DFA urges Pinoys in Turkey to take extra precaution amid unrest

The Philippine government on Tuesday advised Filipinos in Turkey to take extra precaution amid ongoing unrest and violence across the country.

While there are no specific threats against the estimated 5,000 Filipinos there, Foreign Affairs spokesman Raul Hernandez urged Philippine nationals to stay away from areas where demonstrations are being held to avoid being caught in the clashes between law enforcers and protesters.

“Our Embassy in Ankara continues to monitor the peace and order situation in Turkey,” Hernandez told a press briefing Tuesday, adding demonstrations have been reported in a number of Turkish cities.

Hernandez said there is no need to impose a travel ban on Turkey at the moment as the violence is only confined to particular areas of major cities.

Unrest, wider protests

The unrest began when the government announced a plan to demolish Gezi Park, the last green space in capital Istanbul.

Local demonstrations have spread into wider protests in other cities due to alleged harsh police response and violent crackdown of protesters, a report of the Reuters news agency said.

Pockets of protesters clashed with Turkish riot police overnight and a union federation began a two-day strike on Tuesday as anti-government demonstrations in which two people have died stretched into a fifth day.

Hundreds of police and protesters have been injured since Friday, when a demonstration to halt construction in a park in an Istanbul square grew into mass protests against a heavy-handed police crackdown and what opponents call Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's authoritarian policies.

A 22-year-old protester was shot dead late on Monday at a rally in the southern town of Antakya near the Syrian border, the provincial governor's office said, the second death after a taxi hit a demonstrator in Istanbul on Sunday. It was not clear who opened fire at the demonstration.

Turkey's leftist Public Workers Unions Confederation (KESK), which represents 240,000 members, was due to begin a two-day "warning strike" at midday (0900 GMT) to protest at the police crackdown on what had begun as peaceful protests.

In a defiant response to Turkey's worst riots in years, Erdogan said the protesters were "arm-in-arm with terrorism", before leaving for an official visit to North Africa on Monday.

Barricades of rubble hindered traffic alongside the Bosphorus waterway and blocked entry into Istanbul's main Taksim Square after clashes overnight. Leftist groups hung out red and black flags, and banners calling on Erdogan to resign and declaring: "Whatever happens, there is no going back." - with a report from Reuters, VVP, GMA News

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