Turkish PM makes concession after late-night meetings with protesters' representatives to end almost two weeks of demonstrations

This article is more than 7 years old

This article is more than 7 years old

Turkey's prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, appears to be backing away from a threatened "final" confrontation to clear thousands of protesters occupying an Istanbul park, after a series of late-night meetings with representatives of those involved in street protests which have engulfed dozens of Turkish cities.

In what appeared to be a calculated political move to step back from the violent confrontations that have left five dead and more than 5,000 injured since protests erupted in Turkey, Erdoğan said on Friday he would suspend plans to redevelop Gezi Park pending a government court appeal.

By offering the concession Erdoğan appears to be counting on the protests fading. The prime minister had earlier refused to meet with members of Taksim Solidarity.

In a separate development an Istanbul court released 43 Gezi Park protesters who had been arrested, meeting another of the demonstrators' demands.

Erdoğan's change in tactics comes a day after the European parliament voted to condemn Turkey for the "harsh measures" used on demonstrators.

Although the largest wave of protests in recent Turkish history was triggered by a violent crackdown on 31 May on environmental campaigners occupying the park, since then the protests have been transformed into a wider, if loose, coalition of those opposed to Erdoğan and his ruling moderate Islamist AKP, who they accuse of creeping authoritarianism.

The promise of a breakthrough emerged in a series of meetings in the country's capital, Ankara, and Istanbul. In Ankara, Erdoğan met both artists and representatives of Taksim Solidarity, named for the square adjoining Gezi Park that has been the focus for the worst clashes.

Hüseyin Çelik, deputy chairman of the AKP who attended the talks, said the meeting had been positive but reiterated Erdoğan's position that the occupation has to end.

"Our government has been very tolerant, as tolerant as it goes in a democracy, but I don't think the government will leave that place under occupation for long," he said.

Earlier this week, Taksim Square was cleared by police with water cannon, teargas and rubber bullets in some of the worst scenes of violence in the protests.

In Istanbul, the city's governor Hüseyin Avni Mutlu also held a five-hour midnight meeting with young protesters invited via Twitter at a cafe on the shores of the Bosphorous to hear their complaints.

"We felt they showed sensitivity … and did not have an unyielding stance regarding staying there [in the park]," Mutlu told reporters.

Signs of movement to end the two-week standoff prompted a rally on the Turkish stock market rally and a drop in bond yields.

Protesters in the park have tentatively welcomed the moves by Erdoğan as the "first positive sign".

Representatives of Taksim Solidarity who attended the meeting said Erdoğan had promised to abide by the outcome of a court case filed in an effort to stop the redevelopment and would hold a referendum on the plans if the court found in the government's favour.

"The prime minister said that if the results of the public vote turned out in a way which would leave this area as a park, they will abide by it," Tayfun Kahraman of the protest group told reporters following the meeting.

"His comments that the project will not be executed until the judiciary makes its decision is tonight's positive result."

Taksim Solidarity said in a subsequent statement that it would decide as a whole what course of action to take after consulting on the results of the overnight meeting, leaving it unclear whether it would continue protesting.

The pledge by Erdoğan – whose party plans to hold rallies in Ankara and elsewhere this weekend – suggests that he has calculated that he can defuse the current political crisis by putting the onus on the courts, not his own damaged political reputation, and hope that there is insufficient agreement among those in the park on other issues for the occupation to continue.

This is despite the fact that a poll of those in Gezi Park published earlier this week suggested that almost half were there because of their unhappiness with Erdoğan's style of government.