In a statement on the excessive use of police force at Taksim Square on Tuesday, Emma Sinclair Webb, Turkey researcher at Human Rights Watch said that the Turkish government’s decision to send riot police into Taksim Square and to teargas tens of thousands of peaceful protesters has all but destroyed efforts to foster a peaceful dialogue between the government and protesters.

Teargassing tens of thousands of protesters in Taksim Square won’t end this crisis, said Sinclair-Webb, underlining that “If Turkey is to be counted among rights-respecting countries, the police brutality has to stop and the government should talk to the protesters.”

Sinclair-Webb remarked that the vast majority of protesters maintained their peaceful occupation of the park as riot police repeatedly fired rounds of teargas and used vehicles equipped with water cannon.

“The deployment of riot police in Taksim Square comes on the eve of government plans to hold a meeting between Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and representatives from nongovernmental groups, who would either be able to represent the protesters or potentially mediate with the Taksim Solidarity Platform, which unites various groups among the protesters”, Sinclair-Webb said.

Referring to the speech Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdoğan made on the morning of June 11, “We will continue decisively, Gezi Park is not an occupation site”, Sinclair-Webb said that the prime minister’s words seem to have been a green light for the teargas attack on peaceful demonstrators the evening.

Sinclair-Webb underlined that “The United Nations Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officers state that law enforcement officials “shall, as far as possible, apply non-violent means before resorting to the use of force and firearms.” Whenever the use of force is unavoidable, security forces shall “[e]xercise restraint in such use and act in proportion to the seriousness of the offence and the legitimate objective to be achieved.”

In addition, law enforcement officials should not use firearms against persons “except in self-defense or defense of others against the imminent threat of death or serious injury.” Because rubber bullets may in certain circumstances have lethal effects, they should be treated for practical purposes as firearms, Sinclair-Webb said.