ISTANBUL

Turkish authorities kept up with heavy-handed security measures despite international attention during the May 31 demonstrations to mark the anniversary of last year's Gezi Park protests.

The police will by no means give way to Gezi demonstrations at Istanbul’s Taksim square today, as they were clearly ordered to do so, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said only hours before a planned anniversary meeting. 

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has urged young Turks to ignore calls to mark the first anniversary of Istanbul's Taksim Square protests, Saturday.

Thousands of police officers and dozens of water cannon trucks are to be deployed to the square, according to media reports.

Istanbul is on alert ahead of the first anniversary of the massive Gezi protests May 31 as calls were made for street action in the flashpoint area of Taksim Square, which was the heart of last year’s demonstrations.

In its latest measure, the Istanbul police have canceled all holidays and increased the shifts of police officers to 12 hours until a second order.

This time a year ago, Turkey was experiencing its largest ever wave of civil protests, following the government’s strong reaction to protesters who did not want a shopping mall to be built over one of the last remaining green spots at the heart of Istanbul: Gezi Park in Taksim Square.

Coal was discovered in the Ottoman Empire relatively lately, but administrators soon started extracting it in a move toward industrialization Sometime before 1829, Sultan Mahmud II (r. 1808-1839) sent forth a decree throughout all the lands of the Ottoman Empire offering to award anyone who could discover coal.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has slammed the Gezi Park protesters on the eve of the anniversary of last year's massive demonstrations, while criticizing Twitter and Facebook on May 30.

Azeri state oil company SOCAR has signed a $3.29 billion financing deal with 23 banks and export credit agencies for the construction of a refinery on Turkey’s Aegean coast, SOCAR’s Turkish subsidiary Petkim said on May 30.

Nine activists have been detained in a protest staged by Greenpeace Mediterranean against the Nuclear Plants Summit in Istanbul on May 30.

The activists had hung a 28 square-meter poster carrying the words “Nuclear disaster starts here” on the outside wall of the hotel in Şişli where the summit was held, and greeted attendees with the same poster at the building’s entrance.

Police tear gas has claimed another victim as a 64-year-old woman who was sent into a coma by police during a crackdown in Istanbul last December passed away May 30.

Elif Çermik spent 159 in coma after a heart attack she sustained due to the effects of tear gas, doctors said.