Turkish police used water cannons and pepper spray on Tuesday to disperse hundreds of demonstrators protesting the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank in Istanbul.
Masked protesters shattered windows of banks and a McDonald’s restaurant as they ran through the streets behind Istanbul’s Taksim square, less than a kilometre away from the venue of the IMF meeting. Store owners shuttered their shops along the tourist route of Istiklal Street on Tuesday.
The IMF is meeting in large part to find ways to prevent a financial crisis like the one that swept across the globe last year from happening again.
Last week, IMF managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn talked openly about a plan that would see banks contribute to an insurance policy against a future economic collapse.
