Turkey protest death toll rises

A protester injured during clashes with Turkish riot police has died, raising the death toll to five from the two-week stand-off, lawyers said.

Ether Sarisuluk, 26, who had been on a life support for days, was pronounced dead today.

He is believed to have been hit on the head by a tear gas canister during protests in Ankara on June 1, family lawyer Sema Aksoy said.

The protests centred on Istanbul’s Taksim Square look set to continue today despite a referendum offer over a contested development plan presented yesterday by prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s party.

The offer was made by Justice and Development party spokesman Huseyin Celik after talks between Mr Erdogan and a group of activists.

It amounts to the first big gesture by his government to end the stand-off.

But on a more defiant note, Mr Celik said the government would not allow the sit-in in Gezi Park, next to Taksim Square, to continue “until doomsday” – a sign that authorities’ patience is running out.

The prospect of a referendum amounts to a political gamble by Mr Erdogan, who has drawn the ire of protesters over his alleged authoritarian streak. He appeared to be betting that his strong base of support would vote for the plans.

The protests erupted on May 31 after a violent police crackdown on a peaceful sit-in by activists objecting to the project to replace Gezi Park with a replica Ottoman-era barracks. They spread to 78 towns and cities across the country and have attracted tens of thousands of people nearly every night.

Mr Celik said the referendum would be on the Ottoman-era barracks. But he said it would exclude the planned demolition of a cultural centre that the protesters also oppose. Mr Celik said the centre was in an earthquake-prone area, and needed to come down.

Mr Erdogan hosted the 11 activists – including academics, students and artists - in his offices in Ankara. Some leaders of civil society groups, including Greenpeace, had said they would not participate because of an “environment of violence” in the country.