Turkey: Football Fans Call For PM To Resign
Usually sworn enemies, supporters of Fenerbache, Galatasaray and Besiktas unite during a mass anti-government demonstration.
7:56am Sunday 09 June 2013
By Katie Stallard In Istanbul
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Rival football fans from Istanbul's three main clubs have rallied in Taksim Square calling for Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to resign.
Supporters of Fenerbache, Galatasaray and Besiktas marched to the square to join thousands of protesters in a mass anti-government demonstration.
The three sides are usually sworn enemies, but on Saturday they applauded each other and sang anti-fascist songs together.
They lit flares and jumped up and down together chanting "resign, Erdogan, resign" and "we are united together against fascism".
Rival football fans came together at the demonstrations
Several people swapped scarves and held up rival clubs' colours.
"Normally we are enemies, but now we are brothers," one Fenerbache fan said, surrounded by Besiktas and Galatasaray supporters.
Another man said: "This is about more than football, it's about our country, and we are against Erdogan."
A group of assorted fans chanted together on top of the remains of a burnt-out bus.
Police used tear gas and water cannon to break up protests on Saturday
Nearby, a couple held up their seven-month-old daughter and bounced her along in time to the music.
They said they had come because they were worried about the country she would grow up in under Mr Erdogan's rule.
This started as a small environmental protest against plans to build a shopping centre in Gezi Park - a small, tree-lined area, just off Taksim Square
But it has sparked a much deeper sense of discontent and protesters are now calling for democracy and freedom.
Taksim Square does not represent all of Turkey, or even all of Istanbul.
Protests have been raging across Turkey for several days
But what is happening there has exposed a fault line - a section of society who feel their prime minister doesn't speak for them.
They say he is leading the country in an increasingly authoritarian, religiously conservative direction - away from the tradition of what has long been a proudly secular state.
Mr Erdogan, who has called several times for an immediate end to the protests, met senior party officials on Saturday to discuss restoring control, but exactly how they plan to go about it is far from clear.
