Turkish PM Issues 'Final Warning' To Protesters To End Park Sit-In, Rejects EU Critics

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6. Turkey protesters reject 'last warning' to evacuate

ISTANBUL (AFP) — Protesters on Thursday rejected Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's "last warning" to evacuate an Istanbul park at the centre of mass anti-government demos, setting the stage for a showdown in a deadly conflict that has rocked the country.

Representatives for the thousands camping out in Gezi Park said they rejected Erdogan's offer to leave the park in return for a referendum on its planned redevelopment, after the fight to save the site snowballed into the biggest challenge to the Islamic-rooted government's decade-long rule.

"We will stay in Gezi Park with all our demands and sleeping bags," Taksim Solidarity, the core group behind the campaign, said in a statement.

Demonstrators have been camping out in the park since May 31, when police brutally responded to a campaign to save the site's 600 trees from being chopped. The crackdown sparked an outpouring of anger across the country at Erdogan and his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), seen as increasingly authoritarian.

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