Lawyers rail at police response to Turkey protests

June 12, 2013 at 2:24p.m.

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) - Thousands of black-robed Turkish lawyers stormed out of their courthouses Tuesday, shouting about the alleged rough treatment of their colleagues by police amid the country’s biggest anti-government protests in years. The rallies by clapping, chanting jurists added a new twist to the nearly two weeks of protests that started in Istanbul and spread to dozens of other Turkish cities. The protests have shaped up as the biggest test yet in the 10-year rule of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Islamic-rooted government.