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Radiohead Ramadan attack protestors teargassed in Istanbul
Turkish police fired tear gas and rubber bullets at protesters who demonstrating against an attack on Radiohead fans at an Istanbul record store.
A mob of two dozen men stormed the Velvet IndieGround shop on Friday night, beating up customers attending an album launch party for drinking alcohol and listening to music during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
In response, several hundred protesters gathered on Saturday night in Istanbul’s upscale Cihangir neighbourhood to denounce the attack, shouting “shoulder to shoulder against fascism” and calling Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan a “murderer” and “thief”.
Buses of riot police and water-cannon vehicles swiftly moved in, dispersing the protesters within an hour by lobbing teargas into the crowd.
Even small-scale protests in Turkey are routinely met by teargas and water cannons since nationwide anti-government demonstrations erupted in summer 2013, prompting an intensifying crackdown on dissent.
Two protesters in Cihangir were arrested, Turkey’s Dogan news agency reported. Two men who were detained for attacking the record store were released on Sunday.
Velvet IndieGround was holding a release party for Radiohead’s new album, A Moon Shaped Pool, when screaming men smashed up the store, beating customers with sticks and bottles.
Radiohead condemned the attack. “We hope that someday we will be able to look back on such acts of violent intolerance as things of the ancient past,” the British rock band said in a statement.
Men wielding sticks and chanting “takbeer” and “allahu akbar” were seen marching through Cihangir after police broke up Saturday night’s protest.
Days earlier, a ultranationalist group threatened to forcibly break up next weekend’s Istanbul gay pride march, the largest in the Middle East. Authorities have cancelled the parade, citing security concerns following the attack in Orlando.
Turkish LGBT groups have vowed to defy the cancellation order, responding: “We didn’t ask you for permission.”