ISTANBUL, Turkey, June 2 (UPI) -- Protesters in Istanbul said Sunday their ongoing occupation of a downtown park was evolving into a referendum on the Turkish government.
Demonstrators remained in control of Taksim Square Sunday following nearly two days of clashes between riot police and protesters calling on the government to cancel plans to tear down a small park in the square for commercial development, CNN said.
The BBC said marchers were again in the streets of Istanbul and Ankara Sunday; however, the marches were largely peaceful.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan defended his administration's environmental record Saturday.
Protesters in Taksim Square said their beef with Erdogan went beyond the park issue. "This park was just the ignition of all that," protester Yakup Efe Tuncay told CNN. "The Erdogan government is usually considered as authoritarian. He has a big ego; he takes himself as a sultan."
Officials said the two days of protests resulted in more than 1,000 injuries and 939 arrests.
