ISTANBUL - Fifty-nine people were detained Sunday when Turkish riot police broke up a demonstration here to mark International Women's Day on March 8, media reports said.
Police ordered the 150-strong group, gathered in front of the mayor's office in the European quarter of the city, to disperse on the grounds that their rally was illegal, but the protestors refused, the Anatolia news agency said.
Footage broadcast on the NTV news channel showed officers using truncheons and pepper gas against the protestors and hauling those detained on to buses.
Turkish women were encouraged to come out of their homes and take a leading role in social and political life by the founding father of the country, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who gave them suffrage rights in 1934 years before some European countries.
Those in the urban west are today emancipated to the point of claiming top jobs, but the majority is still in the grip of patriarchal traditions and violence against women remains a serious problem in a country which was given the green light to begin accession talks with the European Union this year.
03/06/2005 11:51 GMT