MOSCOW, June 14 (RIA Novosti) - Protestors refuse to leave the Gezi Park in Istanbul despite the prime minister’s “last warning” on Thursday, a key group behind the protests said in a statement.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who met with activists of various opposition organizations earlier on Thursday, said that the protests would be over in 24 hours. "I am making my last warning: mothers and fathers, please withdraw your kids from there," Al-Jazeera quoted Erdogan as saying.
Taksim Solidarity, an umbrella group whose members began the protest 17 days ago, said its members will continue its sit-in until the government cancels its plans to redevelop the area.
“As we have been sitting in the park from the very first day, we will be here with our songs, with our books and poems; with our sleeping bags and mates and with our demands,” Taksim Solidarity said in an English-language statement posted on its website.
The sit-in protest against the planned redevelopment of the Gezi Park in Central Istanbul sparked violent anti-government demonstrations across the country in the past two weeks. At least five people died and thousands were injured during the unrest.
