Thousands of angry Turks on Saturday joined mass anti-government protests, challenging Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s call to end the worst civil unrest to hit Turkey during his office.
From the early morning, protesters began arriving in Istanbul’s Taksim Square with food and blankets to settle in for a weekend of demonstrations, AFP said, adding to the growing tent city in nearby Gezi Park.
Erdogan has meanwhile announced he would convene his party leadership.
The prime minister is to meet with top officials from his Justice and Development Party, The Associated Press reported.
Anti-government protests in Turkey entered their ninth day on Saturday.
The protests began as a sit-in at a park in Taksim Square to prevent a redevelopment project that would replace the park with replica Ottoman barracks and other buildings.
But a violent police backlash to clear the square of protesters on May 31 outraged many, prompting the protests to spread to dozens of cities across the country.
Since then, three people have died - two protesters and a policeman - and thousands have been wounded. One protester is on life support in a hospital in Ankara, according to AP.
Banners and signs all over the park depict Erdogan as Hitler and continue to call for his resignation.
“These protests that are bordering on illegality must come to an end as of now,” Erdogan said on Friday on his return from a four-day trip to North Africa.
As protesters woke up in Gezi park on Saturday, some got organized to remove all the rubbish whilst others handed out free food from makeshift stations, Reuters news agency reported.
Protesters clashed with riot police on the outskirts of Istanbul overnight, and witnesses say at least one person had been injured, AP reported.