Unions march in Turkey as Erdogan threatens force

Jacob Resneck | Special for USA TODAY

ISTANBUL -- Turkey's government warned Monday it may deploy the military against protesters who continue to defy officials by taking to the street in what the interior minister called "illegal" demonstrations.

The warning is the first time the Islamist-rooted government has mentioned use of the military to restore public order. The military establishment traditionally has been seen as a bastion of secularism in Turkey and a foe of past Islamist political figures.

"First, if necessary we will deploy the police," Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc said on Monday. "If that's not enough we will call on the (national guard). But if events still require further action, and the governor so wishes, we will resort to calling on the military to contain these protests."

Arinc said further street action is unlawful and that security forces would have a free hand to quash demonstrations.

Riot police sprayed water cannons and tear gas in Istanbul to disperse protesters on the sidelines of a demonstration called by labor groups against the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Five major unions representing public sector workers, doctors, engineers and architects have called their rank-and-file out on a one-day strike and march in city centers across Turkey. One analyst said it would be a "major move" if the Turkish government were to involve the military in its attempts to control the protests.

"This government has prided itself on getting the Turkish military out of the political equation and has actually emphasized civilization of the Turkish political scene which it argued from the outset was overly dominated by the military," said Bulent Aliriza, a Turkey expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

"It would be ironic if the Turkish military were to be reintroduced to the equation on the request of the Erdogan government."

Two weeks of violence across Turkey started as a rally to save trees in a downtown park but turned into a broader protest against Erdogan's perceived authoritarian policies. Protests have referred to Erdogan's Islamic-rooted party's passage of curbs on alcohol.

Five people, including a policeman, have died and more than 5,000 have been injured, according to a Turkish rights group. The strike Monday was called in response to a violent police crackdown that evicted thousands of protesters from Istanbul's Gezi Park on Saturday.

This weekend Erdogan held a pair of massive rallies in Ankara and Istanbul where he rejected any criticism and blamed "terrorists" and outside forces for the unrest that's been the largest challenge of his decade-long rule. He said they were "anti-democratic" because they had occupied Gezi Park, and accused them of harming private and public property.