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Turkeyâ€™s nationalist opposition leader calls for early elections

08 June 2013 17:56 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Turkey's Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli has called for early elections in the country to overcome what he said a “deadlock”, APA reports quoting Todays Zaman.

Speaking during a party meeting on Saturday, Bahçeli said the reason behind recent protests across the country triggered by a government plan to rejuvenate Ä°stanbul’s Taksim is the government’s “flawed understanding of democracy.”

“There is no way left other than elections to overcome the current deadlock,” Bahçeli said. The prime minister's stance and the tumult have deepened the crisis," Bahçeli said. "The prime minister's time is up, we believe he has to renew his mandate."

There have been anti-government protests in Ä°stanbul and some other cities since late May.

The protests began as a sit-in at a park in Taksim Square to prevent a redevelopment project that would replace the park with replica Ottoman barracks and a shopping mall.

Violent intervention by police to eject the protesters on May 31 outraged many, and the protests spread to dozens of cities across Turkey.

Over the past nine days of demonstrations and frequent violent confrontations with police, three people have been killed - two protesters and a policeman - and thousands have been injured.