Kommersant correspondent at the center of events in Istanbul

On Saturday evening, Gezi Park in Istanbul was stormed by riot police using tear gas and water cannons. At night, while bulldozers cleared the park from the tent camp, thousands of protesters tried to break through to Taksim Square. At the scene of the events, Anastasia Gorshkova, the largest street clashes since the beginning of the protests, was observed by Kommersant correspondent in Istanbul.

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Photo: Reuters / REUTERS/Osman Orsal

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Photo: Reuters / REUTERS/Murad Sezer

Photo: Reuters / REUTERS/Osman Orsal

Photo: Reuters / REUTERS/Yannis Behrakis

Photo: Reuters / REUTERS/Murad Sezer

Prime Minister Erdogan's patience ran out after protesters decided to remain in the Gezi tent camp, despite an ultimatum from the head of government, who the day before demanded that they clear Taksim Square within 24 hours. "If they don't leave on their own, the security services will know how to remove them," the prime minister said at a rally of his supporters in Ankara yesterday. After this, at about 20:20 local time, police special forces began to storm the park. About a thousand people standing at the entrance were literally washed away by water cannons, and the park was bombarded with tear gas shells. Clearing Gezi took about twenty minutes - there was so much gas inside that visibility did not exceed a few meters. Police in gas masks chased the protesters, tearing down posters and kicking sleeping bags and tents along the way. They did not stand on ceremony with journalists either: one photojournalist had his camera knocked out of his hands when he tried to photograph a plainclothes policeman dragging a suffocating demonstrator.

After gaining control of Gezi Park, police strengthened the cordon and tried to disperse protesters through the streets in the hope that they would go home. But these actions had the opposite effect - thousands of opponents of Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government headed to Taksim Square from all over the city. By midnight, each of the streets around the square had its own battle going on, and the streets themselves were plunged into a gas fog.

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Typical protective equipment for a protest participant in Turkey is a helmet, a respiratory mask or gas mask, and goggles. Many have bottles and spray bottles with a solution (water, milk, lemon juice, talcide) that helps when tear gas gets into the eyes. The danger comes not only from gas - the pinkish water used to disperse crowds is added with chemicals that cause irritation on the skin, including burns. “There have never been such harsh actions by the police before. These are no longer street clashes, this is war!” a girl in a motorcycle helmet with a peace sign told me, coughing.

The heaviest clashes that night took place in the Harbiye area, where about ten thousand people tried to break into the square along Cumhuriyet Street, facing Gezi Park. To hold them back, police set up a barricade of water cannons (known locally as "toms"), from behind which they fired plastic bullets and tear gas shells. These shells flew back along with the stones, and applause was heard after each thrown shell. Gradually moving forward, the protesters built barricades from scrap materials - broken fences, boards, flower pots, chairs from street cafes, transformers, bags of garbage. All this happened under national songs and slogans: “We stand shoulder to shoulder against fascism” (Erdogan’s opponents call his regime fascist - Kommersant), “The government must go!”, “This is just the beginning, the protests will continue.” At one point, police intensified their firing of tear gas, causing the crowd to flee. Some turned into the alleys - the residents of the houses were already standing there, offering water, scarves and food. I sat down on the curb, a man came out of the entrance and asked if I was okay. She nodded. “If you need any help, you can knock on this door at any time,” he added.

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Since the beginning of the protests, the most popular shelter has been the Divan Hotel, located behind Gezi Park on the opposite side of Taksim. There you could wash your eyes, change your mask, charge your phones, and get water. The owners of the hotel are the richest Turkish family, Koch. Protesters tell each other that Ali Koç, co-owner of the main family company Koç Holding, told hotel workers that if they did not help the protesters, they would have to look for new jobs. To get to Divan by two o'clock in the morning, we had to make a long circle through numerous alleys around Taksim Square - clashes continued on the nearby streets. As we approached the square, there really was a feeling of war - shell casings, the acrid smell of burning mixed with tear gas. By this time the square and park had already been cordoned off by the police. In Gezi, there were bulldozers dismantling the tent camp and smiling, slightly frightened workers clearing debris from the tents and sweeping the paths of the park. It was still difficult to breathe there. I noticed a Turkish TV channel journalist walking among the rubble with a cameraman.

The prime minister's opponents do not trust the Turkish media, especially after the Turkish CNN aired a documentary about penguins in Antarctica during the brutal crackdown on protesters in Taksim Square on June 3. “We won’t see each other if this journalist talks on TV about the weapons and drugs found in the camp,” one of the protesters later told me. Outside the Divan Hotel there is a crowd chanting slogans and tired special forces soldiers stationed around. I was told that they had already tried to storm the hotel several times, throwing tear gas grenades at it. Suddenly a bottle flew towards the police, and a moment later everyone near the hotel was covered in a stream of water from a toma. People rushed into the hotel. They said that the bottle was thrown by a provocateur. One way or another, the police detained several people. Near the hotel, since the beginning of the protests, a camp of independent doctors has been formed to help the demonstrators - at night he too was hit, despite the fact that at the time of the police attack, there were people poisoned by tear gas in the medical tents who were being treated.

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By 5 a.m., police were able to establish control of most of the streets around Taksim. According to official information from the authorities, 29 people were injured during the night riots. According to unconfirmed reports from social networks, more than 150 are seriously injured. To indicate last night, the hashtag #KaraGece (black night) has already appeared on Twitter. Currently, access to Taksim Square is closed to pedestrians and vehicles, and clashes between protesters and police continue on the streets leading to it in the Harbiye area. Istiklal Street is also gradually filling with demonstrators, and anti-government slogans are heard. Prime Minister Erdogan arrived in Istanbul on Sunday and a rally of his supporters is scheduled to begin soon in the Kazlicesme area.

Kommersant-online will monitor developments.

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Kommersant asked the protesters what they were trying to achieve

How Gezi Park was cleared