Turkey protesters refuse to leave Istanbul park

ISTANBUL — Turkish protesters said on Saturday they would not leave an Istanbul park. .

Hundreds of protesters, camped out for more than two weeks in tents in Gezi Park adjoining Istanbul’s central Taksim Square, said they would keep up their campaign after the government failed to meet demands including the release of detained demonstrators,according toNBC NEWS.

A police crackdown on peaceful campaigners in the park two weeks ago provoked an unprecedented wave of protest against Erdogan and his AK Party — an association of centrists and conservative religious elements — drawing in secularists, nationalists, professionals, trade unionists and students.

The unrest, in which police fired teargas and water cannon at stone-throwing protesters night after night in cities including Istanbul and Ankara, left four people dead and about 5,000 injured, according to the Turkish Medical Association.

“The government has ignored clear and rightful demands since the beginning of the resistance. They tried to divide, provoke and damage our legitimacy,” the Taksim Solidarity platform, an umbrella group for the protesters, said in a statement.

“We continue to guard the park,” said Mucella Yapici, a spokeswoman for the group, when asked if the protesters were considering withdrawing.

Erdogan told protesters at Thursday’s talks he would put plans to build a replica Ottoman-era barracks in Gezi Park on hold until a court rules on them, a more moderate stance after two weeks of defiance in which he when he called the protesters as “riff-raff” and said the plans would go ahead regardless.

M.D