ISTANBUL, Oct 28 (AFP) - A potentially explosive stand-off between security forces and the inhabitants of an Istanbul squatter area was defused Thursday when city authorities and residents reached an agreement after nearly three hours of talks, officials said.
The deal came after more than 24 hours of clashes between police and dwellers of the Ertugrulgazi neighborhood in suburban Pendik, on the Asian shore of this city of 12 million, who were protesting against the demolition of their homes, which were built illegally on state-owned hand.
"There will be no more demolition in Ertugrulgazi," Pendik Mayor Erol Kaya said after meeting representatives of the residents who manned burning barricades all night and pelted police vehicles with sticks, stones and bottles.
The violence overnight and Thursday morning followed pitched battles Wednesday between neighborhood youths and police trying to protect the municipal demolition teams that bulldozed 14 houses.
The residents stayed up all night, erecting barricades of upended utility poles, garbage cans and burning tires and hurling projectiles at armored police vehicles that powered through barricades that were rebuilt as soon as the security forces left, reporters at the scene said.
Paramilitary gendarmerie units were called in overnight and cordoned off the area, an AFP photographer at the scene said, but let through a peaceful procession of about 1,000 people, including women and children, who marched on the local city hall to demand an end to the demolition.
A tense stand-off ensued when police blocked their path but an arrangement was reached allowing a delegation of 20 neighborhood representatives to proceed into the building for talks with Kaya and Pendik's acting sub-governor, Fahri Keser.
"We have dispelled rumors that the entire neighborhood will be razed," Kaya told reporters, explaining that the houses knocked down on Wednesday had been built on land earmarked for a public school.
The families who were left homeless will be housed in new lodgings to be erected jointly by the residents, the municipality and the Pendik sub-governorate, Kaya said.
The deal was greeted with cheers and applause by the waiting crowd, which dispersed peacefully, and residents could later be seen clearing the barricades.
In Wednesday's clashes, neighborhood youths -- many said to be militants of a left-wing extremist group -- fought with police, who responded with tear gas and baton charges and arrested four people.
Scores were hurt on both sides, press reports said, but none seriously.
Television crews and press photographers also came under attack from the demonstrators and several news teams at the scene Thursday reported that they were assailed by stick-wielding youths.
Uncontrolled urbanization and a steady population flow from the countryside to urban areas has resulted in entire neighborhoods of illegally built homes mushrooming in and around Turkey's major cities.
Known as "gecekondu" (built by night, in Turkish) areas, they generally house people of rural origin who eke out a living in the city, often at menial jobs.
Some of the neighborhoods are razed while others manage to negotiate deals with local governments to ensure their survival and profit from occasional amnesties to flourish and grow into entire suburbs with their own schools and businesses.
10/28/2004 11:50 GMT - AFP