Clashes in Turkey

ROUGH CUT (NO REPORTER NARRATION).

STORY: Turkish police fired tear gas and water cannon to disperse protesters in a central Istanbul square on Saturday (July 6) as they gathered to enter a park that was the center of anti-government protests last month.

The Taksim Solidarity Platform, combining an array of political groups, had called for a march to enter the sealed off Gezi Park, but the governor of Istanbul warned any such gathering would be confronted by the police.

A police crackdown on a group protesting against the planned redevelopment of Gezi Park, a leafy corner of Taksim, triggered a nation-wide wave or protest last month against Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, accused by his critics of becoming increasingly authoritarianism after a decade in power.