Police take on protesters as Turkish PM seeks calm

Police firing water cannons and tear gas have dispersed protesters who erected street barricades near Turkey`s parliament overnight.

Ankara: Police firing water cannons and tear gas have dispersed protesters who erected street barricades near Turkey`s parliament overnight.

It was the latest face-off between authorities and demonstrators over the government`s response to a protest sit-in that began more than two weeks ago at a coveted Istanbul park.

The pre-dawn melee today in Ankara on a street also close to the US Embassy came hours after Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan`s government asked a small delegation of protesters to persuade the hundreds of others occupying Gezi Park to leave.

Erdogan has promised to let the courts and a possible referendum decide the fate of a park redevelopment project that has sparked Turkey`s biggest protests in decades. His supporters were planning weekend counter demonstrations in Ankara and Istanbul.

PTI

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