eTN received this letter from Jessica Stockwell a reader visiting Istanbul.
A group of quietly dining tourist in a nearby restaurant in Taksim Square (me being one of them) were interrupted by save-the-trees activists running from police tear gassing the population in the area of Taksim Square, a commercial and transportation hub for the city of Istanbul.

Coughing, sweating and under distress, they announced, and actually excused themselves for the interruption, to let the diners, like me, know that it’s unsafe to go outside on to Taksim square right now
Police are throwing gaz bombs at us. The restaurant propietors closed the entrance door because tear gaz fumes were flooding the streets and affecting everyone regardless of your purpose in the area. Thousands of tourists populate this most modern, historic and residential area.

Massive protests in Turkey spread to the heart of the tourism center in central Istanbul today – to Taksim Square.

Tourists from all over the globe escaped the violence in Istanbul while other parts of this town were calm.

Turkish police have fired tear gas and water cannon to disperse a massive demonstration against the demolition of a park in central Istanbul. The rally grew into a wider anti-government protest and is spreading across the country.

13:27 GMT: Nearly 1,000 people have been injured in clashes with the police in Istanbul alone, and at least six of them lost eyes after being hit by gas canisters, Reuters reported citing Turkish Doctors’ Association.

The European parliament and human rights groups such as Amnesty International raised their concern about excessive use of force by police in Turkey. The US State Department said it is concerned about the high number of injuries.

“The severity shown by the police is completely disproportionate and is leading to a spreading of the protests,” Martin Schulz, head of the European Parliament and a leading member of Social Democratic Party of Germany said in a statement.

Please check out RT news for up to the minute updates, pictures and TV reports on this story
http://rt.com/news/istanbul-park-protests-police-095/