By late afternoon the police withdrew from Istanbul s central Taksim Square allowing the demonstrators to gather unimpeded in the place that set off the protests last week with government plans to turn a park into a replica Ottoman era army barracks and mall. The departure of the police who had been widely criticized for violent tactics on Friday set off scenes of jubilation and destruction as some drank and partied while others destroyed police vehicles and bulldozers.
While the protest began over plans to destroy a park for many demonstrators it had moved beyond that to become a broad rebuke to the 10 year leadership of Mr. Erdogan and his government which they say has adopted authoritarian tactics. Some saw the police pullback as a historic victory.
It s the first time in Turkey s democratic history that an unplanned peaceful protest movement succeeded in changing the government s approach and policy said Sinan Ulgen the chairman of the Center for Economic and Foreign Policy Studies a research group in Istanbul. It gave for the first time a strong sense of empowerment to ordinary citizens to demonstrate and further their belief that if they act like they did the last few days they can influence events in Turkey.
Still it was far from clear on Saturday whether they could capitalize on that success. The Islamist rooted government retains wide support among religious conservatives and Mr. Erdogan insisted Saturday that the redevelopment of the square would continue as planned.
By nightfall as the crowds in Taksim Square grew rowdier a sense of foreboding crept in as many worried that the police would return. In the Besiktas neighborhood the police were still firing tear gas and protesters were erecting barricades in the streets.
The Interior Ministry said it had arrested 939 people at demonstrations across the country and that 79 people were wounded a number that was probably low. After Friday s protests which were smaller and less violent than those on Saturday a Turkish doctors group reported nearly 1 000 injuries.
The scenes carried the symbolic weight of specific grievances people held beers in the air a rebuke to the recently passed law banning alcohol in public spaces young men smashed the windshields of the bulldozers that had begun razing Taksim Square and a red flag bearing the face of modern Turkey s secular founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk was draped over a destroyed police vehicle.
But despite the comparisons made in some quarters with the street chaos of Egypt s revolution no viable political opposition here seems capable of seizing the disenchantment of secular minded Turks and molding it in to a cohesive movement.
The government in its response to the crisis sent mixed messages. Mr. Erdogan in a televised speech on Saturday morning vowed to go forward with the plan to remake the park in Taksim Square while other members of his Justice and Development Party including a deputy prime minister and the mayor of Istanbul promised to listen to the concerns of citizens.
The widening chaos here and the images it produced threaten to tarnish Turkey s image which Mr. Erdogan has carefully cultivated as a regional power broker with the ability to shape the outcome of the Arab Spring revolutions by presenting itself as a model for the melding of Islam and democracy.
Now Turkey is facing its own civil unrest and the protesters presented a long list of grievances against Mr. Erdogan including opposition to his policy of supporting Syria s rebels against the government of President Bashar al Assad his crackdown on dissent and intimidation of the news media and unchecked development in Istanbul.
Ceylan Yeginsu and Sebnem Arsu contributed reporting.
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