The Turkish government has said it may use the army to try to end the three weeks of protests across Istanbul, Ankara, and other cities.

Speaking on state-run television, Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc said:

“Our police, our security forces are doing their jobs,” he said. “If it’s not enough then the gendarmes will do their jobs. If that’s not enough… we could even use elements of the Turkish armed forces.”

This is the first time using the military has been raised by the AKP government, with the army traditionally perceived as a bastion of secularism in the country. However, Erdogan has done much to curb its power in Turkey during his rule, and has replaced many of the military chiefs with people more loyal to his government.

Arinc’s combative speech echoes the message coming from Prime Minster Recep Tayyip Erdogan who again blamed the protests on “terrorists” in a speech to his supporters in Istanbul on Sunday, and was supportive of the heavy-handed police tactics against protesters in recent weeks, with Taksim Square regularly engulfed in clouds of tear gas as the police shot rubber bullets and water cannons at largely peaceful protesters.

Over the weekend, the police continued to use ever escalating levels of violence against protesters to clear them from Taksim Square and Gezi Park, and prevented doctors and reporters from accessing the scenes. Further reports described police throwing “gas bombs into hotel lobbies which are used as infirmaries” and “kids and women in gas clouds”. At least four people are reported to have been killed in the protests to date, with more than 5000 injured.

These videos show police using a water cannon and then tear gas inside the nearby Universal German (Taksim) Hospital before entering on foot, with nurses reportedly helping the injured protesters hide:





In the face of this escalating violence and the police blocking protesters from re-entering Taksim Square or Gezi Park, the focal point of the demonstrations, protesters have vowed to continue, saying:

“We are afraid, we are terrified, [but]we will not back off, we will not run away, and we will not give up.”

Turkish trade unions have come out in support of the protesters, and called for a strike against the police crackdown which has seen more than 500 people arrested, with activists facing off with police in Ankara earlier today, and marches planned in Istanbul later today.