Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
The funeral is to take place in Istanbul of a teenaged boy who died nine months after
being injured during Turkish anti-government protests.
Berkin Elvan's death on Tuesday led to protests in cities across the country.
President Abdullah Gul has appealed for calm ahead of his funeral.
Berkin was injured while walking to buy bread in Istanbul in June. He was hit on the head
by a tear gas canister at the height of the unrest.
Correspondents say that his 269 days in a coma gripped the country and became a symbol
of the heavy-handed tactics used by police to rein in the biggest demonstrations against
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. News of the boy's death - the eighth linked
to last year's mass anti-government protests - triggered protests across the country. In
Ankara, police fired tear gas and water cannon to disperse some 2,000 protesters who chanted:
"Government of Erdogan, government of corruption, resign, resign."
Police pursued the protesters into side streets where small clashes continued.
There was similar police action against thousands of protesters on both the European and Asian
sides of Istanbul and in the cities of Mersin and Adana.
'Fabricated' The June protests started as a small environmental
gathering to save an Istanbul park, but they quickly snowballed into a nationwide movement
against the government of Mr Erdogan, which critics say has become increasingly authoritarian
and corrupt. The sons of three cabinet ministers have been
arrested and accused of corruption, while Mr Erogan himself has angrily condemned as
fabricated an audio recording that appears to show him talking to his son about hiding
large sums of money. He said last month that the recording, allegedly
tapped and then posted on social media, was a "treacherous attack".
It appears to reveal Mr Erdogan asking his son Bilal to dispose of millions of euros
in cash from a house.