Anti-government protesters laid on the road near the U.S. Embassy in the Turkish capital Ankara on Sunday (June 16) in an attempt to block water cannon and armoured police vehicles from breaking up demonstrations in the area.

Protesters also pointed lasers at water cannon operators as police retaliated with smoke grenades.

The anti-government protests continued around the country on Sunday, as hundreds of thousands of supporters of the Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan rallied at an Istanbul parade ground.

Erdogan told a sea of flag-waving supporters that two weeks of protests had been manipulated by "terrorists" and dismissed suggestions that he was behaving like a dictator, a constant refrain from those who have taken to the streets.

Riot police fired teargas into side streets around Istanbul's central Taksim Square as he spoke, trying to prevent protesters from regrouping after hundreds were evicted from the adjoining Gezi Park, the centre of the demonstrations, late on Saturday (June 15).

Police officers backed by a helicopter, some in plain clothes and carrying batons, used teargas and chased gangs of rock-throwing youths into side streets around Taksim.

Two Turkish union federations said on Sunday they would stage a one-day nationwide strike on Monday (June 17) in protest at the forced eviction by riot police of hundreds of anti-government demonstrators from an Istanbul park.

The unrest in Turkey has so far left four people dead and about 5,000 injured, according to the Turkish Medical Association.

Presented by Adam Justice

READ: https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/turkey-protests-gezi-park-evacuation-istanbul-erdogan-479209