2004 Istanbul Summit - Demonstrations

Demonstrations

During June, there was a surge in demonstrations against the upcoming NATO summit, resulting in almost daily protests in Turkey. For instance on June 16, Turkish riot police detained some 40 people during a demonstration and on June 21, police used water cannon, tear gas and armoured vehicles to disperse activists who barricaded streets and threw petrol bombs. Throughout June, anti-NATO protestors from around the world gathered at Istanbul to demonstrate.

Protests included opposition to US foreign policy (especially opposition against the US-led Afghanistan War and the Iraq War), opposition to NATO's presence in the Balkans, opposition against NATO itself or against a new role for NATO, opposition against the continuing existence of nuclear weapons, and claims the USA abused NATO to support its policies in Afghanistan, Iraq and the wider Middle East.

A day before the summit, US president George W. Bush traveled to Ankara, the capital of Turkey for advance meetings with Turkish leaders. Then and during the summit demonstrations became larger and tens of thousands of Turks demonstrated in the streets of Istanbul. On June 28, demonstrators tried to disrupt the NATO meeting by staging several simultaneous mass demonstrations around the city. Riot police sprayed tear gas at anti-NATO demonstrators as protesters and police clashed in running street battles. At least 30 people, including five police officers, were injured when anti-NATO protesters throwing stones and petrol bombs clashed with riot police. Some 20 persons were detained in these protests. The police broke up a smaller crowd, detaining at least six persons, in the Mecidiyeköy area when they tried to march towards the summit about 3 km to the south. In a separate protest, Greenpeace activists, dangling from a bridge over the Bosphorus Strait, unfurled a 30 meter banner showing a dove of peace with a nuclear missile in its beak and the phrase "Nukes out of NATO".