- Title: TURKEY: Turkish protesters call for more demonstrations
- Date: 9th June 2013
- Summary: ISTANBUL, TURKEY (JUNE 9, 2013) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF PROTESTERS IN PARK PROTESTERS GATHERING (SOUNDBITE) (Turkish) PROTESTER METIN GOKSOL, SAYING "The prime minister is saying that the answer must be given at the ballot box. But the ballot box would only mean justification of what they are doing right now. The real deal is to break down the ballot box, boycott the electio
- Embargoed: 24th June 2013 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Turkey
- Country: Turkey
- Topics: Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA4IEIWQ04ITCROB09O63RJULKO
- Story Text: Protesters in Turkey have dismissed the prime minister's comments suggesting that they must not be allowed to succeed.
Tayyip Erdogan told supporters not to 'allow those who attempt to plant divisive seeds to do so'.
But protesters in Gezi Park in Istanbul's Taksim Square remained similarly defiant on Sunday (June 9).
"The prime minister is saying that the answer must be given at the ballot box. But the ballot box would only mean justification of what they are doing right now. The real deal is to break down the ballot box, boycott the elections and stay on streets," said a protester, Metin Goksol.
Another protester said the demonstrations should continue until elections take place.
"I want these protests to continue until the elections. This movement which started as an environmental one has now became a public protest. We will keep on supporting this protest as much as we can but it will be perfect if itwith a democratic process like elections," Semah Ozyurt said.
Erdogan's AK Party on Saturday ruled out early elections and senior party officials said they may call their own public meetings in Istanbul and Ankara next week.
What began as a campaign against government plans to build over Gezi Park spiralled into an unprecedented display of public anger over the perceived authoritarianism of Erdogan and his Islamist-rooted AK Party.
Police fired teargas and water cannon at protesters night after night in Istanbul and Ankara last week, in clashes which have left three dead and close to 5,000 injured.
The organisers of the initial protests in Taksim, calling themselves Taksim Solidarity, repeated their call for the redevelopment plans to be abandoned, police use of tear gas to be banned, those responsible for police violence to be dismissed and bans on demonstrations to be lifted.
Erdogan has given no indication of plans to clear out Taksim, around which protesters have built dozens of barricades made of ripped up paving stones, street signs, vandalised vehicles and corrugated iron, clogging part of the city centre. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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