The protests in Turkey started over the government's plan to build a mall on the site of a beloved park in the middle of Istanbul. The fate of that park, however, has taken a backseat to much larger issues in the country.

Now the protesters are gathering en masse to confront the government over increasingly rigid authoritarian rule in the country. The protest grew in strength after an especially harsh crackdown by the government last week.

"The government interferes with what we need to eat, what we need to drink, how we should sleep with our partner, how many kids that we should have," protester Filiz Polat said. "This is getting beyond reasonable."

So far there has been a significant amount of violence during the protests, with both civilians and police sustaining injuries. To date, there have been thousands of reported injuries and at least one death.

"Police fired hundreds of tear gas (canisters) and they didn't stop," noted freelance photographer Dogan Emre. "There were many injured men and women and there weren't any ambulances. Civilians were helping the injured in a mosque. They used the mosque like a hospital."

The government has not backed down from its earlier promise of sustained efforts to overwhelm any opposition. When the protests first started, participants were told that if they brought out 100,000 supporters, the government would bring one million. Though it hasn't quite played out like that, the Turkish government is showing no signs of backing down.

"This is a protest organized by extremist elements," Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said at a news conference before departing on a trip to North Africa. "We will not give away anything to those who live arm-in-arm with terrorism. Many things have happened in this country, they've hanged, they've poisoned, but we will walk towards the future with determination and through holding onto our values."

Previously, the Turkish government had largely been applauded by Western nations as a model for a democratic Islamic state. Behind the scenes, however, there had been concerns over their human rights policies, and those concerns were aired over the weekend in response to the strong response by Turkish authorities against the protesters.