Turkish riot police detain a demonstrator during protests at Kizilay Square in central Ankara, June 16, 2013.<\/p>\n
\n
Turkish demonstrators, arrested at Istanbul\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s Gezi Park, start a hunger strike to protest against the extension of their detention period.\n<\/p>\n
Almost 50 detainees went on hunger strike on Wednesday after prosecutors prolonged their detention.\n<\/p>\n
The detainees identified as representatives and leaders of workers’ groups had been rounded up on Monday.\n<\/p>\n
The Taksim Solidarity Platform said they were taken into custody without any legal basis.\n<\/p>\n
Turkish police have arrested thousands of demonstrators since a renovation plan at Gezi Park sparked massive anti-government rallies in May.\n<\/p>\n
The Turkish protesters said Gezi Park, which is a traditional gathering point for rallies and demonstrations as well as a popular tourist destination, is one of Istanbul\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s last public green spaces.\n<\/p>\n
The protests soon spread to other cities across the country and turned into calls for the resignation of the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.\n<\/p>\n
Erdogan opponents say he has become increasingly authoritarian since coming to power a decade ago.\n<\/p>\n
Several people have been killed in the violent crackdown on peaceful protesters, who Erdogan has described as foreign-backed extremists and terrorists.\n<\/p>\n
On June 24, Erdogan praised the \u00c5\u201clegendary heroism\u201d of police forces in quelling anti-government protests.\n<\/p>\n
The Turkish prime minister has faced international condemnation for his handling of the crisis. Turkish police have been also strongly criticized for using excessive force against the peaceful protests.\n<\/p>\n
MAM\/KA\/<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Republished with permission from: Press TV<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Turkish riot police detain a demonstrator during protests at Kizilay Square in central Ankara, June 16, 2013. Turkish demonstrators, arrested at Istanbul\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s Gezi Park, start a hunger strike to protest against the extension of their detention period. Almost 50 detainees went on hunger strike on Wednesday after prosecutors prolonged their detention. The detainees identified as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[487],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-49239","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-breaking-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49239"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49239\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}