US rejects claims Americans fomenting Gezi Park unrest in Turkey

The United States rejected claims June 17 that any U.S. organizations or Americans were stirring up unrest in Turkey, where anti-government protests have raged nationwide for almost three weeks.

“We absolutely reject the accusations that U.S. groups or individuals are responsible for or have escalated … the protests in Turkey,” State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said, according to Agence France-Presse.

The statement came after a news story that appeared in a Turkish daily that accused a U.S.-based think tank of being behind Istanbul’s Gezi Park protests.

Turkey’s crisis began when a sit-in to save an Istanbul park from a redevelopment project prompted a brutal police response on May 31.

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