Three days after anti-government rallies began in Turkey, the fight between political bodies and civilians wears on, becoming increasingly violent as the number of protesters rise.
What began as a peaceful sit-in against a redevelopment that would turn Gezi Park into an Ottoman empire-themed shopping mall has now turned into a brutal fight that has pitted dissidents against police.
Authorities rolled out to Taksim Square Friday morning, when the demonstration first began. Images of police in hand-to-hand combat with protesters surfaced online, including one widely-shared picture of a woman, clad in a red dress and simple flats, being blasted by a police officer's steady stream of tear gas.
Freelance photographer Dogan Emre was at the site of the most brutal fighting in Besiktas, near Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's office. He told USA Today that the many injured received no government aid.
"Police fired hundreds of tear gas [canisters] and they didn't stop," he reported. "There were many injured men and women and there weren't any ambulances. Civilians were helping the injured in a mosque. They used the mosque like a hospital."
More than 1,000 people have been wounded in Istanbul, and a few hundred more in Ankara, local medics told news service Haaretz. Around 940 people were arrested in over 90 demonstrations strewn about the country.
The fight was triggered by the redevelopment of the park, and has morphed into an all-out brawl against the government. Many of the demonstrators say that they are shocked by Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's quick ascent to power, as he has recently become strict on social issues.
"The government interferes with what we need to eat, what we need to drink, how we should sleep with our partner, how many kids that we should have," one secular Turkish man named Filiz Polat, who spoke with USA Today, said. He and more than 100,000 other demonstrators marched against the prime minister all weekend.
On Sunday, crowds of people marched up and down main thoroughfare Istiklal Avenue, yelling, "Tayyip resign!" while holding Turkish flags.
Some are calling this the Turkish Spring, giving a nod to the Arab Spring protests of 2011. But Erdogan has waved that notion off, saying that the uprisings in the Middle East two years ago have nothing to do with this.
"We already have a spring in Turkey," he said, speaking on the country's free elections. "But there are those who want to turn this spring into winter. Be calm, these all will pass."
President Barack Obama expressed concern over Turkey's violent crackdown on its protestors. He seemed surprised at responses that police gave to a sit-in protest, and suggested both sides try to steer clear of any more physical fighting.
Secretary of State John Kerry also voiced trepidation over what he called, "excessive use of force by police," at a news conference during his visit with the foreign minister of Poland.
"We urge all people involved...to avoid any provocations or violence," the Miami Herald reported Kerry as saying.
Meanwhile, in the nighttime air of Taksim Square, street food vendors assembled by the protesters, some of whom were camping out in the area. They grilled meat, sang songs with anti-government lyrics, asking those in office to resign. Empty shells, signs, paper and other debris littered the streets.
Some dissidents also sold bottles of beer and flouts of tequila, disregarding a recently passed law against alcohol consumption, USA Today reported. One vendor had written on the stall, "Cheers, Tayyip," a sneer against Erdogan, who publicly supported the ban on booze sales near government institutions.
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