Police ‘to end use of pepper spray’
POLICE will not use pepper spray to quell any future demonstrations, Prime Minister Tufan Erhürman has decreed, after it was used against farmers angry over the rising cost of animal feed.
Officers were seen using the disabling substance last week against demonstrators in the capital who had tried to march to the Ledra Palace checkpoint.
Following a meeting with police chief Süleyman Manavoğlu on Saturday morning Dr Erhürman said that pepper spray would no longer be used.
He also criticised those protesters who had caused damage to property, saying the right to assemble and demonstrate did not grant the right to vandalise.
The Premier said Mr Manavoğlu had explained that the use of pepper spray had been “proportionate” and had been necessary to avoid using truncheons.
Doctors were critical of the use of the “chemical weapon”.
Ahmet Varış, president of the Tıp-İş union, said the use of pepper spray could have potentially “fatal” effects.
He said it could cause “serious eye problems, asthma, oedema of the lungs, heart failure and brain haemorrhage”.
His views were echoed by Teksen Köroğlu, vice-president of the Cyprus Turkish Medical Association, who called for use of pepper spray and other “riot control agents” by the security forces to be banned.
Meanwhile police have launched an investigation into last week’s protests by the livestock breeders’ union, which saw farm vehicles used to block roads around the capital and to try to force entry to the Agriculture Ministry.
Some machinery left near the bus terminal was towed to the roadside by police, while one demonstrator was taken to the police station with his tractor for allegedly causing damage to public property, and another demonstrator was summoned to give a statement. Both men have been charged.
Dr Erhürman went to the city’s police headquarters with union leader Mustafa Naimoğulları last Saturday to pacify angry farmers who had gathered there on hearing claims – denied by the Premier – that he had ordered the arrest of 12 demonstrators.
Police issued a statement saying no arrests had been made.