Thousands of people assembled in Istanbul\'s Taksim Square on Saturday to protest against the country\'s conservative leadership, prolonging a stand-off of more than three weeks, dpa reported. Demonstrators displayed banners with slogans such as \"Taksim is everywhere\" or \"Taksim solidarity.\" Traffic was more or less at a standstill, but police had not engaged the demonstrators yet. However, water cannon were on standby. Police have already cleared the square twice in recent weeks. The protests began against a planned development project within the square, but have turned into broader complaints about the direction the regime of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has taken the country.