59 people who had been taken into custody in Taksim on 6 July, last Saturday, have been referred to court.

The detentions at Taksim Square took place after police brutalized people who gathered to re-enter the Gezi Park after the court's June 6 decision to cancel the Taksim pedestrianization project which included the building of a barracks at Gezi Park.

Police attacked people as they started to gather, denying them permission to enter the park, using intense tear gas and pressure water, rubber bullets also. Once again, many were detained and taken into custody that night which witnessed clashes lasting till early morning.

59 people who were detained by police that night have been referred to the Istanbul Courthouse in Çağlayan today. They will bear testimony to the prosecutor after being subjected to medical control.

On the other hand, 17 other people in İzmir have also been referred to court today in relation with Gezi protests. The detainees had been taken into custody after the simultaneous raid operations police carried out in five cities, İzmir, Ankara, İstanbul, Manisa and Batman, three days ago. All the detainees were taken to İzmir after the operation.

27 people had been taken into custody in the police operations in İzmir on 20 and 24 June. 24 among them were arrested and sent to prison for alleged crimes they are accused of having committed during the protests.

Protests in the country were sparked by a small group of environmentalists started to stay in the Gezi Park after construction vehicles demolished the walls of the park to some extend on 27 May. They therewith started to stay in the park to prevent the demolition of the park as part of Taksim pedestrianization project.

The demolition of the park was halted one day later, after Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) Istanbul deputy Sırrı Süreyya Önder stood in front of a bulldozer and didn't leave the area, insisting that the demolition of the park and the uprooting of the trees was unlawful. Officials had no document giving them permission for the demolition of the park. Riot police units and the machines left the park but did later return to the area, forcibly dispersing the people there, burning their tents and using tear gas against the group.

The brutal police violence against environmentalist groups drew strong reactions from people not only in Istanbul but also across the country. Protests spread and grew larger as millions took to the streets to protest the government's repressive practices. Turkish police tried to suppress the demonstrations by using excessive force, rubber bullets, as well as intense tear gas and pressure water allegedly containing chemicals. People however didn't surrender, but grew in numbers every day, with all those from various anti-government parties, circles and organizations coming together, chanting the slogan “Shoulder to shoulder against fascism”.

The government didn't expect the protests to reach that extend, which made it resort to further violence it believed would give the necessary answer to the protestors whom the Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, kept insulting and accusing of terrorism and provocation.

He defended the practice of police forces, saying that they were there to protect people, regardless of the fact that four people were killed, twelve others lost their sight and some ten thousand were injured by police during the countrywide protests. What he believed was that protestors deserved this for creating a terror environment in a highly prestigious city of Turkey, Istanbul.

The police terror against demonstrators has been backed up by detention operations which began mid June and have been going on ever since, mainly targeting members of left-wing and socialist-democrat organizations, on the grounds that they joined protests. Among those detained since the beginning of June are also minors, students, lawyers, doctors, politicians, journalists and ill people, a case often seen in Turkey as police have no limits in intervening mass demonstrations and the detention operations they carry out by raiding houses at dawn and forcibly taking people into custody. The detention operations have been intensified since the beginning of July.