Antalya: Police in the Turkish Mediterranean city of Antalya detained dozens of people today during a series of protests denouncing a G-20 summit that is underway in a nearby seaside resort, although the demonstrations were mostly peaceful.
Security is tight during two-day meeting that was expected to be dominated by discussions about how the G-20 nations will respond to the deadly Paris attacks, claimed by the Islamic State group.
Demonstrators were being kept miles away from the venue at a secluded seaside resort some 40 kilometers (25 miles) from Antalya city.
A group of some 500 youths belonging to a Turkish nationalist association gathered in the city, holding up card-board effigies of US President Barack Obama and denouncing US interventions in the Middle East.
Police allowed the group to march briefly only after they agreed to leave the effigies behind.
Hundreds of members of Turkish left-wing groups and trade unions later held another protest denouncing the organisation which gathers the world’s wealthiest economies.
They marched in central Antalya carrying a banner that read in Turkish and in English: “Killer, colonialist, imperialist war organisation G-20 get out!”
Police detained dozens of demonstrators after one of the demonstrators threw fireworks at police while the crowd was dispersing.
Earlier, police detained four protesters who wanted to walk to the venue of the G-20 summit to deliver a letter to participants.
Police also detained a group of about 20 protesters who refused to undergo a security check, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported.
Separately, members of Turkey’s ethnic Uighur community also gathered in the city to protest China’s treatment of the Muslim minority.
Chinese President Xi Jinping is among the summit participants.