Turkish protesters, police clash at IMF meeting

Turkish police fired tear gas and used water cannon for a second day to break up protests against the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank on Wednesday, a Reuters witness said.

Several hundred protesters, students and members of Turkish unions and left-wing political parties clashed with riot police a few hundred metres from the IMF-World Bank semi-annual meetings, which ended on Wednesday. Several youths threw stones at police before riot police moved in to break up the protests.

Police detained several people.

On Tuesday, police broke up protests after demonstrators threw petrol bombs and smashed up banks near the convention centre where finance ministers, central bankers and economists and executives had been meeting to discuss the global economy.

Several people were injured in Tuesday’s protests.

There is significant opposition among Turkish students to the IMF, which helped bail Turkey out of a deep financial crisis in 2001.

Turkey and the IMF are negotiating a possible new loan agreement after the last one expired more than a year ago.—Reuters