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Turkish Spring?

Turks takes to the streets to protest the policies of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Demonstrators stand in front of a make shift shield during clashes with Turkish riot police in central Ankara June 2, 2013. Erdogan accused Turkey's main secular opposition party on Sunday of stirring a wave of anti-government protests, as tens of thousands regrouped in Istanbul and Ankara after a lull and trouble flared again in the capital. Police used tear gas on protesters in Ankara but the clashes were relatively minor compared with major violence in Turkey's biggest cities on the previous two days. RE
Demonstrators stand in front of a makeshift shield during clashes with Turkish riot police in central Ankara, June 2, 2013. — REUTERS/Umit Bektas

A violent police raid on a sit-in protesting plans to build a mall at Taksim Square in Istanbul on May 31, 2013, became a rallying point for anger over the policies of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. 

Cengiz Candar, who has covered historic events such as the fall of the Berlin Wall, wrote that the protests most remind him of the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia in 1989.

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