Clash ahead of Bush visit to Turkey

[Sabri Oncu <soncu@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Clash ahead of Bush visit to Turkey
Saturday, June 26, 2004 Posted: 9:41 PM EDT (0141 GMT)


ANKARA, Turkey (AP) -- Turkish police fired tear gas as more than 100
left-wing demonstrators hurled rocks and used sticks to try and break down a
police barricade during a protest Saturday ahead of U.S. President George W.
Bush's arrival in the country.

The clash came amid intense security in anticipation of Bush's visit and the
opening of a NATO summit in Istanbul on Monday.

Some 6,000 people, mostly members of trade unions and leftist groups,
gathered in the center of Ankara, with some chanting "Murderer U.S.A. get
out of the Middle East."

The area was completely closed off to traffic and surrounded by more than a
dozen police armored personnel carriers.

Shortly after the protest began, about 150 people rushed a police barricade,
hitting the blue iron barrier with sticks.

"We will go beyond barricades protecting Bush," the group shouted.

Police fired tear gas at the group from an armored personnel carrier.

A few minutes later the group, the "Socialist Platform of the Downtrodden,"
again attacked the barricade, throwing rocks at the police. The group is an
umbrella organization representing several leftist labor unions in Turkey.

Police again responded with tear gas.

After the second clash, organizers of the main protest asked everyone to
disperse and people began leaving the square.

Saturday, a small bomb attached to a banner protesting the summit and Bush's
visit went off in downtown Istanbul, causing no injuries.

Two small bomb blasts overnight caused minor damage but no injuries in the
southern city of Adana, and police defused a remote-controlled bomb placed
under a car in the Black Sea port of Zonguldak, the Anatolia news agency
said.

The bombings have been blamed on militant leftists, and Turkish police have
detained scores of suspected members of radical groups.

Militant Kurdish, Islamic and leftist groups are active in the country, and
security in Istanbul has been of special concern since November, when four
suicide truck bombings blamed on al Qaeda killed more than 60 people.

More than 23,000 police officers will be on duty during the summit, which
will be attended by NATO leaders including Bush, British Prime Minister Tony
Blair and French President Jacques Chirac.

Bush was to meet with Turkish leaders early Sunday before heading to
Istanbul for the NATO summit.