REPORT: Turkish police enter Istanbul's Gezi Park after PM's warning

Turkish riot police fired teargas and water cannon to try to clear protesters from a central Istanbul park on Saturday evening, hours after Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan warned that police were ready to intervene.
   
"We have our Istanbul rally tomorrow. I say it clearly: Taksim Square must be evacuated, otherwise this country's security forces know how to evacuate it," Erdogan had told tens of thousands of supporters at a rally in the capital Ankara.
 
Earlier, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan warned protesters occupying a central Istanbul park that they should leave before a ruling party rally on Sunday or face eviction by the security forces.

"We have our Istanbul rally tomorrow. I say it clearly: Taksim Square must be evacuated, otherwise this country's security forces know how to evacuate it," Erdogan told tens of thousands of supporters at a rally in the capital Ankara.

Meanwhile, a group of protesters leading the sit-in at an Istanbul park said their "struggle will continue," despite a warning and efforts from the prime minister to negotiate a peaceful end to two weeks of demonstrations that have devolved at times into clashes with riot police.                

Taksim Solidarity, an umbrella group of protests movements, didn't specify in its statement whether that meant the sit-in in Gezi Park in Istanbul would end, but said: "We shall continue to keep watch over our park."                        

Earlier Saturday, President Abdullah Gul wrote on Twitter that "everyone should now return home," insisting "the channels for discussion and dialogue" have opened. It was an apparent reference to talks on Friday between Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and a small group of delegates from the protest.                   

In those talks, the prime minister promised to let the courts and a possible referendum decide the fate of a Gezi Park redevelopment project that has sparked Turkey's biggest protests in decades.                                         

Overnight, police firing water cannons and tear gas dispersed protesters who erected street barricades near Turkey's parliament in the capital, Ankara. It was the latest face-off between authorities and demonstrators over the park redevelopment plan and the police handling of the earliest days of the protests.              

Erdogan's supporters were planning weekend pro-government demonstrations in Ankara and Istanbul. 


AP/REUTERS


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