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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsHighly doubtful reports of agent orange being used on protesters in Turkey
as pointed out below AO is not an effective riot control weapon. It does sound like some sort of unknown chemical/s have been used though.
Reports of agent orange being used on protesters in Turkey (Photos)
Protests spread across Turkey on Saturday as tens of thousands of demonstrators headed to the streets during the second day of civil unrest in the country. The protests began on what is now being called Bloody Friday over plans to destroy Gezi Park, known as the only green space left in central Istanbul. It started as a peaceful protest, with demonstrators setting up tents, singing, and reading books to at the park to keep out bulldozers. Police soon began to fire tear gas grenades, water cannons, and rubber bullets into the crowd or peaceful protesters. Protesters claim the Turkish government is using chemical weapons against them. There have been numerous reports that the Turkish government is using Agent Orange, a chemical banned by the U.N. against the protesters.
View slideshow: Turkey protests Saturday
The peaceful protests have turned into a face-off between police and demonstrators, with clashes throughout the night on Friday, and continuing through all of Saturday and into Sunday. Riot police have been accused of heavy-handed tactics as crowds of protesters chanted, "shoulder to shoulder against fascism" and "government resign". Those who would not take to the streets stood in front of their windows banging pots and pans, shouting support.
Others held up cans of beer in defiance of the Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP), which passed a recent law restricting the sale and advertising of alcohol. Protesters claimed that the government in Turkey is increasingly authoritarian and trying to pull the country into the conflict in neighboring Syria.
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http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-980610
Turkish Riot Police Starts Using Agent Orange
By TurkeySpring | Posted June 1, 2013 | Ankara, Turkey
CNN PRODUCER NOTE This iReport claims that police in Istanbul have been using Agent Orange against protestors. CNN reporters there have seen no indication this is the case. Police in Istanbul today have been using a colored substance, according to protestors, which may be the source of the confusion.
For the latest verified CNN reporting on the situation in Istanbul, click here.
- katie, CNN iReport producer
Riot police started using Agent Orange (orange gas in shells) in Turkey protests, a chemical strictly banned by the U.N. resulting in severe health problems, as demonstrations escalated to an immense level in İstanbul's Taksim Square and Ankara. The residence of PM has been barricaded with heavy police force as demonstrators headed that way. Governorship in Ankara has asked the armed forces to take action against protestors.
Plastic bullets were also used and access to social media sites like Facebook and Twitter via wireless connections were shut down for several hours.
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Recursion
(56,582 posts)But, no. There are much better defoliants now, and it doesn't do anything to the people it lands on for decades.
L0oniX
(31,493 posts)Recursion
(56,582 posts)Yeah, I'm pretty sure I know about LNX. It increases cancer and birth defect rates. It's also not a very good defoliant compared to what they have now, it hasn't been manufactured in years, and it's not what's being shot at my friends who are in Taksim right now.
Something that makes you sick months or years later is a horrible crowd suppression tool.
Puzzledtraveller
(5,937 posts)It may take years, decades even, but eventually you'll die.
premium
(3,731 posts)Agent Orange is long term, not immediate or short term.
riderinthestorm
(23,272 posts)on a secular society.
Recursion
(56,582 posts)I have enough friends there to be skeptical of simplistic explanations of what's going on (hell, I was there the day before this started, and I saw the original protest and the Islamist protest in Sultanahmet that was going on too).
L0oniX
(31,493 posts)idiots.
Recursion
(56,582 posts)The big question is whether the people to his right in AJP will bail on him for this -- the conservative Islamists don't trust this economic-development-above-everything-else stuff.
KamaAina
(78,249 posts)not something pigs would use on a crowd of protesters.
Brother Buzz
(36,476 posts)I'm just saying.....
Recursion
(56,582 posts)The color is just a codename (there 6 of them, IIRC)
Brother Buzz
(36,476 posts)Dimes to donuts, when the smoke clears, we will discover pepper spray was used. Even money says the pepper spray was manufactured in the USA, too.
Comrade Grumpy
(13,184 posts)backscatter712
(26,355 posts)Those are nasty enough.
cigsandcoffee
(2,300 posts)PDJane
(10,103 posts)Last edited Mon Jun 3, 2013, 03:50 PM - Edit history (1)
Including enough tear gas that the police were looking for unused cannisters among the litter, pepper spray, water cannons, rubber bullets and live ammo. The police were shooting at faces, and it's been brutal.
The chemical being used was something called 'orange smoke', and if you'd like to see the cannister, along with other stuff, go here:
http://www.rightnow.io/timeline_4.html
Scroll down the page, you'll see a pic of the canister itself, along with the evidence that they were using live bullets.
Warning: Some of these pictures are brutal, there's at least one 'see, the police are nice people' propaganda pic, and they're a compilation from everywhere. You are warned!
There's a youTube video of the stuff being played with at