28 June 2004	Monday	09 Jamadi-ul-Awwal 1425

ISTANBUL, June 27: Tens of thousands of protestors spilled into the streets in Turkey's largest city on Sunday for a noisy demonstration against a two-day Nato summit and the presence of US President George W. Bush.

Watched by a heavy police presence, the protestors filled a central square on the Asian side of Istanbul, some four kilometres from the summit venue on the other side of the Bosphorus Strait, bisecting the city.

Bearing colourful banners with anti-Nato slogans, the demonstrators - ranging from left-wingers to Islamists and environmentalists - chanted slogans such as 'Istanbul will become a grave for Nato' and 'United States, Assassins, Leave the Middle East'.

There was no official figure on how many protestors there were in the Kadikoy square on the banks of the Bosphorus but some organisers put it as high as 100,000.

Many were wearing T-shirts which read "The war organization Nato should be disbanded" and "Do not come Bush", while some members of the Islamist-leaning human rights organization Mazlum-Der showed up in orange convict's clothes with chains on their legs, resembling prisoners at Guantanamo Bay.

Speeches delivered by the organizers - three anti-Nato groups, opposition parties, trade unions and civic bodies - charged that the alliance, under the leadership of the United States, was preparing for a belligerent policy in the Middle East that would throw the region into chaos.

"The torturers, the killers are here for a summit of war. Our struggle is for the people of the Middle East who resist torture and occupation," said Mustafa Avci, the secretary-general of KESK, one of the biggest trade unions in Turkey.

Gencay Gursoy, the head of the Istanbul Union of Doctors, said "The Nato summit is a summit that will paint the Middle East red with blood and war".

The speeches were often interrupted by slogans of 'Yankee Go Home, This Country is Ours' as some protestors beat on drums and blew whistles.

"Nato is gathering here to prepare a dirty scheme on the Middle East. What they want is to take over the region's oil resources," one of the protestors, 52-year-old construction engineer Sevki Ayoglu, told AFP.

Another, 34-year-old academic Ozlem Onaran, said she joined the demonstration to stand against "global looting, war and US military aggression".

Foreigners who took part in the demonstration included members of the Communist Party of Greece, invited by the Turkish Communist Party.

Hundreds of police officers in full riot gear, backed by armoured vehicles, kept a close watch on the demonstration, which ended peacefully after two hours.-AFP