IntelligenceBrief July 7, 2013 | Page 2

Turkish police fired teargas and water cannons to disperse hundreds of protesters in an Istanbul square on Saturday as they gathered to enter a park that was the center of protests against Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan last month . Taksim Solidarity , combining an array of political groups , had called a march to enter the sealed off Gezi park , but the governor of Istanbul warned that the police would confront any such gathering . Riot police chased protesters into side streets in what appeared to be the biggest police intervention since the mid- June protests and riots that saw Taksim Square sealed off by makeshift barricades . Protesters in Istanbul chanted " Together against fascism " and " Everywhere is resistance ". Police detained dozens of protesters , but later in the evening many still remained in side streets in the Taksim area , including youths and women , some in gas masks . In the capital , Ankara , hundreds of protesters took to the streets in one area close to the center . Turkish Halk TV showed protesters standing in front of riot police in Istanbul , displaying a court decision cancelling plans for a replica Ottoman-era barracks on Taksim Square . The plan is one of a string of ambitious projects fostered by Erdogan , including a canal parallel to the Bosphorus waterway , a huge international airport and a giant mosque . Authorities can appeal against the court ruling , which was considered a victory for the protesters and a blow for Erdogan , who stood fast against protests and ‘ terrorists ’ and looters stoked riots he said . Istanbul governor Huseyn Avni Mutlu said the authorities had not given permission for Saturday ' s rally .
Kurdish militants attacked two military outposts in southeastern Turkey , breaking a three-month ceasefire , but they denied militant reports one soldier had been killed . The militants from the Kurdistan Workers Party ( PKK ) attacked gendarmerie outposts in two separate districts of Diyarbakir province on Wednesday , drawing return fire from security forces . It said no one had been killed or wounded in the attacks in Diyarbakir ' s Dicle and Hani districts . The PKK earlier issued a statement saying its fighters had killed one Turkish soldier in an attack on a military outpost in Hani , in retaliation for the killing of a Kurdish protester last week . Last Friday , an 18-year-old Kurdish man was shot dead and nine people were wounded as they came under fire during a protest against the construction of a gendarmerie outpost in Diyarbakir province . While there have been reports of minor isolated incidents of violence in the past few weeks , Wednesday ' s attacks appeared to be the most serious violation of a March ceasefire called by PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan as part of a peace process with Ankara .
The two sides of Northern Ireland ' s sectarian divide are holding talks in advance of the Protestants ' annual parades for the first time in an effort to avert riots . Pro- British Protestants stage marches every summer in the British-ruled province , a tradition seen as provocative by Irish nationalists who want to be part of a
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