ANKARA, Turkey — Activists presented a list of demands on Wednesday they said could end days of antigovernment demonstrations that have engulfed Turkey, as trade unions joined in the outpouring of anger, shouting slogans and wielding banners calling for the prime minister to resign.
The activist group denounced Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's "vexing" style and urged the government to halt Taksim Square redevelopment plans, ban the use of tear gas by police, release detained protesters, and lift restrictions on freedom of expression and assembly.
It also demanded that officials responsible for the violent crackdown be removed from office.
Thousands of union members on a two-day strike marched into Istanbul's landmark Taksim Square and central Ankara in a show of support for protesters angry at what they see as Erdogan's increasingly authoritarian rule. Police used tear gas and water cannons to break up the gathering in Ankara after about eight hours.
To defuse the tension, the deputy prime minister met with a group whose attempt to prevent authorities from ripping up trees in Taksim has snowballed into the nationwide protests.
Over five days, police have deployed water cannons and tear gas has clouded the country's city centers. The Ankara-based Human Rights Association says close to 1,000 people have been injured and more than 3,300 people have been detained.
The protests appear to have developed spontaneously and remain leaderless. It was not certain that the tens of thousands of protesters would heed any call by the activist group to cease.
The group of academics, architects, and environmentalists, known as the "Taksim Solidarity Platform," was formed to keep Taksim Square from redevelopment, including the rebuilding of an Ottoman army barracks and a shopping mall. The protests were sparked by fury over a heavy-handed predawn police raid Friday to roust activists camping to stop the plans.
In Ankara, protesters sarcastically called themselves "looters," a reference to Erdogan's earlier characterization of the demonstrators. A sign on a stall in Taksim providing free food and water read "Revolution Market." A whirling dervish holding a gas mask entertained spectators in the square.
Erdogan has inflamed protesters, calling them an extremist fringe and refusing to back away from plans to revamp Taksim. Thursday could offer a pivotal test of whether Erdogan will soften his line as he returns in the late evening from a trip abroad.
Secretary of State John F. Kerry said earlier this week that the United States was troubled by reports of excessive force by the police. He also said Washington is deeply concerned by the large number of people who have been injured.
The comments angered Turkey, with the state-run news agency reporting on Wednesday that Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu had a telephone conversation with Kerry and accused the United States of treating Turkey "as a second-class democracy." He also complained that Washington did not react to similar protests in other countries, the Anadolu Agency said.
Kerry has maintained that his comments were not intended as interference in Turkey's internal affairs, but rather an honest expression of the importance the United States places on such values in all countries.
In Turkey's third largest city, Izmir, police detained 25 people for "spreading untrue information" on social media and allegedly inciting people to join the protests, Anadolu reported. They were detained late Tuesday, the agency said. Police were looking for 13 others, it added.