Demonstrators continued to clash with the police last night over plans to raze a park in Turkey.

Brick by brick, demonstrators built barricades to block the roads leading to Taksim Square and Gezi Park.

The demos started last week but quickly gained steam to include thousands of people who now occupy the park.

The group opposes a government plan to pedestrianise the area into a shopping center and luxury flats.

Turkish Prime Minsiter Tayyip Erdogan, who arrived in Morocco yesterday for bilateral meetings accused his political rivals of spurring the protests. The situation is calm now and people have started using their senses, he said.

Taksim Square was established to symbolise the ideals of the secular Turkish republic that was founded by Kemal Ataturk in 1923 after the Ottoman empire collapsed.

But since the protests broke out, Erdogan has appeared to grow more resolute with his plans- now he says, he has plans to build a mosque there.

See also http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20130604/local/-Turkish-Prime-Minister-provoking-us-to-protest-.472441

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