Night time protests in Istanbul

ROUGH CUT (NO REPORTER NARRATION)

STORY: Anti-government protesters blocked off roads that lead to Taksim Square on Monday (June 3).

A group of four protesters trying to stop a handful of trees from being cut down for a road-expansion project mushroomed last week into thousands of people, who refashioned Gezi into a festival campsite with concerts, speeches and yoga sessions.

They oppose a plan to pedestrianize Taksim and raze Gezi Park to rebuild a 19th Century Ottoman barracks that once marked the outer limits of the city.

In its new form, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has said the ground floor of the replica barracks could serve as shopping center or museum, topped with luxury flats.

Taksim is just one of the government's construction projects that include the world's biggest airport, a $3 billion third bridge across the Bosphorus and a $10 billion shipping canal that would turn half of Istanbul into an island.

Taksim has a particular reso