Turkey protesters refuse to leave Istanbul park despite PM pledge

- Turkish protesters
said on Saturday they would
not leave an Istanbul park
despite a call from the
president for them to
withdraw and a pledge from
Prime Minister Tayyip
Erdogan to hold a vote on
plans to redevelop the site.
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.
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.
The group, whose representatives met
Erdogan at his official residence in
Ankara on Thursday night, said it had
seen no serious signs of progress in
holding those responsible for the
police crackdown to account, nor in
investigating the four deaths, one of
them a policeman, during the unrest.
"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.
"The fact that negotiation and
dialogue channels are open is a sign
of democratic maturity," President
Abdullah Gul, who has struck a more
conciliatory tone than Erdogan
throughout the protests, said on his
Twitter account on Saturday.
"I believe this process will have good
results. From now on everybody
should return home," he said.
What began as a campaign by
environmentalists to save what they
say is one of central Istanbul's few
green spaces spiralled into the most
serious show of defiance against
Erdogan and his AK Party of his
decade in power.
The ruling party plans rallies in Ankara
later on Saturday and in Istanbul on
Sunday. Erdogan said on Friday they
mark the start of campaigning for
local elections next year and are not
to do with the Gezi Park protest, but
they are widely seen as a show of
strength in the face of the
demonstrations.
Erdogan has long been the country's
most popular politician, his AK Party
winning three successive election
victories each time with a larger share
of the vote, but his critics complain of
increasing authoritarianism.