Demonstrators in Turkey's Taksim Gezi Park. Photo: Wikipedia.

New York Times – ISTANBUL — Turkish police on Saturday used water cannons to scatter thousands of people who had gathered in Taksim Square here to commemorate four people killed during the nationwide antigovernment protests that have gripped Turkey for more than two weeks.

Representatives of the peaceful protesters read a statement of their demands before turning to Gezi Park, the center of a campaign to save the only green patch in Istanbul’s center. But that environmental campaign has quickly blossomed into a protest against Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan‘s autocratic and dismissive reaction toward the protesters.

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