#Taksim developments until 14h (local)

The police entered Gezi park at 14h (local)

Here's the latest developments in Istanbul and the Taksim battlefield, according to @wearerabble 's tweets. An interesting side of the story is that it appears that mainstream media started showing footage from the protests (and yet not exactly fresh at all times); on the other hand, there are protesters confirming the presence of plain-cloth policemen at the protests.

Here's the storify:

#rbnews weekly bulletin 01-07 June 2013

Prepared by the #rbnews international team, translated by @IrateGreek 

The text companion to this week's #rbnews international show is now online. You can read it after the jump.

EU Commissioner for Enlargement pays visit to Turkey

EU Commissioner for Enlargement and Neighbourhood Policy, Štefan Füle, paid a visit to Turkey, amidst a running crisis of civil unrest and riots. The Commissioner's visit is significant for the importance the EU is giving to Turkey, but also for the full back up the European Commission is granting to Turkish P.M. Recep Tayyip Erdogan. This is rather is rather evident from the speech the Commissioner delivered, on the occasion of a Conference organised by the Turkish Ministry for EU Affairs, under the title ''Rethinking Global Challenges: Constructing a Common Future for Turkey and the EU''. You can find the speech below:

Erdogan's speech upon his arrival to Turkey, yesterday night

via fb user Ozgur Demir

Below you can read the speech Reyep Tayyip Erdogan delivered at the airport, upon his arrival to Turkey, after his trip to the Maghreb countries. A big crowd welcomed him at the airport. Ozgur Demir translated it into English, as well as the crowd's interactions.

RT:
Dear brothers, people of Istanbul, friends, citizens attaching us from their TVs. I salute you with all my heart. I thank you for giving us this Istanbul night filled with amazing joy and excitement. Tonight I don't only salute you but I also salute every one of my brothers in every village, every city of Turkey.

Crowd: Ya Allah, Bismillah, Allah-u Ekber…

RT:
I salute my grandmothers, my sisters. I salute my worker brothers, farmers, laborers, villagers who work hard is to put bread on the table. I salute my young brothers who are as grand, as dignified and as poised as Turkey is.

Crowd: Istanbul is right here, where are the chapulcus?

PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan's press conference in Tunisia

Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan gave a press conference earlier today, during his trip in Tunisia.
Here's a overview according to the tweets of @BenjaminHarvey.

Statements by Erdoğan from today (03/06/2013) morning

From the tweets of Kadir Murat Yildiz

In a press conference this morning, the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, on the occasion of his departure from Morocco, spoke about the traditional relations of his country with Morocco, the important trade agreements and the financial cooperation between Turkey and the north African states. He also said that he has been a supporter of the Arab spring and therefore he supports the development prospects of Tunisia.

Answering to a journalist's question, about what message he has received from the recent riots and if his administration intends to take any initiatives,
Erdoğan's answer was: "what message have you received?". He added that it is not about Gezi park, but the fact that his political opponents cannot hurt him politically using democratic means through elections, and they choose the way of riots.

The Turkish Prime Minister also said that the riots are instigated from within Turkey and abroad. To the question "who are the instigators", he answered that the issue is being investigated by the Turkish intelligence agencies and that the government will react based on the result of this investigation.

It is notable that Erdoğan was aggressive and sarcastic to the citizens that take part in the uprising, while at some point he mentioned that "160 from my police officers were injured, because they were peaceful". In response to a journalists remark about the Arab Spring, he said that in Turkey there is spring as well and "we will not let them transform it into winter".

Erdoğan was sarcastic even to the journalists. When one of them asked if he would use a "softer tone", the answer was "What softer tone? Teach it to me". He also attacked a journalist from Reuters, saying that he (the journalist) is giving false information to the international press agency and preaching to him about the Turkish Constitution. He finally mentioned that he "is keeping millions of his supporters in their homes", a statement that he is not making for the first time.

Turkish Kurd asylum seeker abducted in Athens and handed over to Turkish authorities

Source

Posted by @IrateGreek

The Movement "Expel Racism" reported yesterday (01 June 2013) that, according to information given by the Turkish police to his lawyers and relatives, Bulut Yayla , a Turkish Kurd asylum seeker in Greece, is now in police custody in Turkey [Update: Lawyers for Refugees and Migrants' Rights report that he was handed over to the police in Edirne. He is now held by the antiterrorism unit in Istanbul after being handed by his Greek-speaking kidnappers to another team that spoke both Greek and Turkish, and then to another that spoke Turkish and English.]. He was abducted in downtown Athens in the evening of 30 May by five men who dragged him in a car and had been unheard from since.

An urgent press release dated 31 May and co-signed by the Greek Council for Refugees, the Social Support Network for Refugees and Migrants, the Team of Lawyers for Refugee and Migrant Rights and the Solidarity Committee for Political Prisoners in Turkey and Kurdistan describe events surrounding his disappearance as follows: