Turkish protesters said yesterday they would remain in Istanbul’s Gezi Park despite a “last warning” by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to evacuate the green patch at the center of deadly anti-government unrest.
“We will stay in Gezi Park with all our demands and sleeping bags,” Taksim Solidarity, the core group behind the campaign to save the park, said in a statement, rejecting the government’s proposal to hold a referendum on the site’s controversial redevelopment.
A day after meeting with protest leaders, Erdogan resumed his combative stance on the protest that has snowballed into the biggest challenge to his government’s decade-long rule.
“I’m making my last warning: mothers, fathers please withdraw your kids from there,” Erdogan said in a live television broadcast. “Gezi Park does not belong to occupying forces. It belongs to everybody.”
Demonstrators have been camping out in the park since May 31, when police brutally responded to a campaign to save the site’s 600 trees from being razed.
“We don’t trust the government... We will stay in the park. It’s not just about the trees,” said interior designer Uzay, 25, accusing Erdogan of polarizing the country and curbing personal freedoms. The premier, who has branded the protesters “extremists” and “looters,” has faced condemnation from the United States and other Western allies over his handling of the crisis.
Four people have been killed and nearly 5,000 demonstrators, many of whom are young and middle-class, have been injured in the unrest.
Showdown looms as protesters reject Erdogan’s ‘last warning’
