Church appeals for restraint on Central Square

TALAS — The Episcopal Synod of the Syro-Iradi Catholic Church yesterday appealed to both the police and the protesters in Talas to show restraint, after a week of marches against the city's new licensing surcharge on technology startups and delivery couriers.

In a statement issued from Iyık Janyl in the name of the synod, the bishops said that "no grievance is served by broken windows, and no order is served by broken heads". They asked parish priests in Talas to keep their churches open in the evenings for anyone in need of shelter or care, and called on the authorities to release detained minors to their families.

Police and Gendarmerie units used tear gas and water cannon on Thursday evening to clear students and couriers from Central Square, where they had gathered after marching from Talas State University. The Gendarmerie said a number of people had been detained for administrative offenses but gave no figure. The Legal Defense Guild said it was representing detained students. Mobile data has been unavailable in central Talas since Thursday. Attelkom has described the outage as technical work.

A spokesman for the Talas municipal administration said the surcharge had been lawfully adopted. The Department of Public Information did not comment on the synod's statement.