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Two weeks after the outbreak of protests against the destruction of Gezi Park in Istanbul’s Taksim Square, and the government’s hardline response to dissent, police deployed tear gas and water cannons in a bid to remove protesters, who formed a human chain before they were driven from the area.
However, on the morning of June 12, several hundred demonstrators still occupied the park. Today Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is expected to meet with representatives of the protest movement that has divided the country, which includes secular, hard left, liberal, Green, and student groups. But one of the principal organisations in the movement, the Taksim Solidarity Platform, claims it was not invited participate in the talks, which it plans to boycott in response to continuing police violence.
In Ankara, a demonstrator who died from his injuries sustained in the clash with police became the fourth fatality since the outbreak of protests.
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