25 arrested in Turkey for protest calls in Twitter

PanARMENIAN.Net - Police in Turkey have arrested at least 25 people in the western city of Izmir for sending tweets calling on people to protest, as anti-government demonstrations enter the sixth day, Press TV reported.

Early on Wednesday, June 5 police detained dozens for posting materials on Twitter which the police said contained “misleading and libelous information,” state-run Anatolia news agency reported.

Ali Engin, a local official for the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), however said the people were detained for “calling on people to protest.”

On Tuesday afternoon, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc apologized for the government's violent crackdown on the protesters and called on the protesters to end the demonstrations.

However, the demonstrators took to the streets again on Tuesday night, flooding Istanbul's Taksim Square and taunting Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who had earlier dismissed them as "extremists" and "vandals."

In the early hours of Wednesday morning, the protesters surrounded Erdogan's offices in both cities and defied police warnings to disperse.

Since Friday, tens of thousands of anti-government protesters have held demonstrations in Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, Mugla, Antalya, and many other cities and towns.