Turkey's prime minister today vowed to press ahead with a controversial plan to redevelop an Istanbul park, calling for an immediate end to the violent protests against the project that have spiralled into anti-government demonstrations.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan remained defiant in the face of the unrest, one of the biggest challenges Turkey's Islamist-rooted leadership has faced in its decade in power.
Today police fired tear gas at protesters gathering in Taksim Square, the epicentre of the demonstrations that have left dozens of people injured and have earned Turkey a rare rebuke from its ally Washington.
Protesters in turn hurled rocks and bottles at the police.
"I call on the protesters to stop their demonstrations immediately," Erdogan said in a speech, as clashed raged for a second day at the square, a popular tourist destination and traditional rallying site in Istanbul.
But what started as an outcry against a local development project has snowballed into widespread anger against what critics say is the government's increasingly conservative and authoritarian agenda.
"We have become one fist," 33-year-old Ataman Bet said as he swept up shattered glass outside his small coffee shop near Taksim.
"This has been everybody -- leftist, rightist, even supporters of Erdogan. People are angry, I am so proud of them" he said, calling the damage to his shop a "necessary sacrifice."
The unrest has spread to other cities across the country, with police today blocking a group of demonstrators from marching to parliament and the prime minister's office in Ankara.
The Istanbul protest began as a peaceful sit-in at Excursion Park across the iconic square, to prevent workers from razing the last patch of trees in the commercial area to make way for the restoration of Ottoman era military barracks, which residents fear will serve as a shopping mall.
"We will rebuild the barracks," Erdogan vowed in his speech, indicating he would not give in to the protesters, who have criticised the police's heavy-handed crackdown.
"We were sitting there around the square and reading a press statement when the police came toward us with riot vehicles, spraying gas," said one of the protesters, 34-year-old Burak Ozbey.
