Turkey protesters refuse to 'go home'

Protestors chant slogans at Taksim Square in Istanbul on June 5, 2013 as part of ongoing protests against the ruling party, police brutality, and the destruction of Taksim park for a development project. Turkey's government apologised today to wounded protestors and said it had "learnt its lesson" after days of mass street demonstrations that have posed the biggest challenge to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's decade in office.

Turkish police had on June 1 begun pulling out of Istanbul's iconic Taksim Square, after a second day of violent clashes between protesters and police over a controversial development project. What started as an outcry against a local development project has snowballed into widespread anger against what critics say is the government's increasingly conservative and authoritarian agenda. (AFP)

Protestors chant slogans at Taksim Square in Istanbul on June 5, 2013, as part of ongoing protests against the ruling party, police brutality, and the destruction of Taksim park for a development project. (AFP)

Demonstrators wave Turkish flags and shout slogans during a protest at Gazi park next to Taksim square in Istanbul on June 5, 2013. Protests are taking place against the ruling party, police brutality, and the destruction of a park for the sake of a development project. (AFP)

Veiled women leave in a taxi as they flee clashes between protesters and riot police during a demonstration in the central Kizilay square in Ankara, on June 5, 2013. (AFP)

Thousands of striking workers took to the streets of Turkey's cities today, loudly joining calls for Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to step down as mass protests against his rule intensified. Bellowing to the din of drums and wailing Turkish pipes, teachers, doctors, bank staff and others marched in a sea of red and yellow labour union flags in the capital Ankara and in Istanbul, where they converged on Taksim Square, the cradle of nearly a week of violent clashes. (AFP)

Turkish protesters confront police forces during riots in a restaurant district of Ankara June 5, 2013. Thousands of striking workers took to the streets of Turkey's cities today, loudly joining calls for Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to step down as mass protests against his rule intensified. Bellowing to the din of drums and wailing Turkish pipes, teachers, doctors, bank staff and others marched in a sea of red and yellow labour union flags in the capital Ankara and in Istanbul, where they converged on Taksim Square, the cradle of nearly a week of violent clashes.  (AFP)
 

Protesters gather around a fire early on June 6, 2013 in Taksim, Istanbul. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was due back in Turkey Thursday after a trip abroad, with thousands of angry demonstrators calling for his resignation as protests entered a seventh day.  (AFP)
 

Turkish Prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his wife Emine step off the plane upon their arrival at Tunis-Carthage International Airport on June 5, 2013. Erdogan is on an official visit in Algeria and Tunisia as anti-government demonstrations take place for five days in Turkey.  (AFP)
 

Follow Emirates 24|7 on Google News.