Turkish police fired teargas and water cannons to disperse hundreds of protesters in an Istanbul square on Saturday as they gathered to enter a park that was the center of protests against Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan last month. Taksim Solidarity, combining an array of political groups, had called a march to enter the sealed off Gezi park, but the governor of Istanbul warned that the police would confront any such gathering. Riot police chased protesters into side streets in what appeared to be the biggest police intervention since the mid- June protests and riots that saw Taksim Square sealed off by makeshift barricades. Protesters in Istanbul chanted " Together against fascism " and " Everywhere is resistance ". Police detained dozens of protesters, but later in the evening many still remained in side streets in the Taksim area, including youths and women, some in gas masks. In the capital, Ankara, hundreds of protesters took to the streets in one area close to the center. Turkish Halk TV showed protesters standing in front of riot police in Istanbul, displaying a court decision cancelling plans for a replica Ottoman-era barracks on Taksim Square. The plan is one of a string of ambitious projects fostered by Erdogan, including a canal parallel to the Bosphorus waterway, a huge international airport and a giant mosque. Authorities can appeal against the court ruling, which was considered a victory for the protesters and a blow for Erdogan, who stood fast against protests and‘ terrorists’ and looters stoked riots he said. Istanbul governor Huseyn Avni Mutlu said the authorities had not given permission for Saturday ' s rally.
Kurdish militants attacked two military outposts in southeastern Turkey, breaking a three-month ceasefire, but they denied militant reports one soldier had been killed. The militants from the Kurdistan Workers Party( PKK) attacked gendarmerie outposts in two separate districts of Diyarbakir province on Wednesday, drawing return fire from security forces. It said no one had been killed or wounded in the attacks in Diyarbakir ' s Dicle and Hani districts. The PKK earlier issued a statement saying its fighters had killed one Turkish soldier in an attack on a military outpost in Hani, in retaliation for the killing of a Kurdish protester last week. Last Friday, an 18-year-old Kurdish man was shot dead and nine people were wounded as they came under fire during a protest against the construction of a gendarmerie outpost in Diyarbakir province. While there have been reports of minor isolated incidents of violence in the past few weeks, Wednesday ' s attacks appeared to be the most serious violation of a March ceasefire called by PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan as part of a peace process with Ankara.
The two sides of Northern Ireland ' s sectarian divide are holding talks in advance of the Protestants ' annual parades for the first time in an effort to avert riots. Pro- British Protestants stage marches every summer in the British-ruled province, a tradition seen as provocative by Irish nationalists who want to be part of a
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