Turkey: Police arrest young protesters

1. C/U Protester being arrested 2. M/S Protester being arrested 3. C/U Protester being arrested 4. M/S Police checking bags 5. M/S Police and photographers with gas masks 6. M/S Police running 7. M/S Protester being arrested 8. W/S Protesters and police at police bus 9. C/U Police with protesters 10. M/S Protester being arrested 11. M/S Protesters being searched 11. M/S Police bus SCRIPT Turkey: Police arrest young protesters The Istanbul suburb of Besiktas was awash with protesters in the early hours of Wednesday as nationwide anti-government demonstrations continued for their sixth day. Police made several arrests after used water cannons and teargas in an attempt to disperse the protesters. Besiktas resembled a construction site after days of demonstrations as protesters have ripped up paving stones, building barricades to repel the onslaught of teargas and water cannons fired by riot police. The protests began on May 27 when local environmental and political groups staged a peaceful occupation to halt construction work on a government-backed project to replace Istanbul's Taksim Gezi Park with a new mosque, shopping centre and replica Ottoman-era barracks. The protest has since swelled, engulfing 67 towns across the country with displays of defiance against the government and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The protests have snowballed, with the gathering momentum directed against what protesters perceive as the creeping authoritarianism of Erdogan's decade long rule which critics say have eroded civil liberties, 'Islamified' the Turkish secular state and compromised the country's security by aligning with the Gulf states, Europe and the USA on the Syrian conflict.