TURKEY-POLITICS-DEMO

Protestors clash with riot police near Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan office, between Taksim and Besiktas in Istanbul, on June 3, 2013, during a demonstration against the demolition of the park. Turkish police on June 1 began pulling out of Istanbul’s iconic Taksim Square, after a second day of violent clashes between protesters and police over a controversial development project. Thousands of demonstrators flooded the site as police lifted the barricades around the park and began withdrawing from the square. 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 PHOTO/GURCAN OZTURK