On the third day of spontaneous mass demonstrations against the authoritarian government in Turkey, protesters held the main square in Istanbul while cops countered a march in the capital Ankara with tear gas and water cannons.

The demonstrators were attempting to march to the high security area around the office of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the target of most of the anger.  The protesters from a wide coalition of groups say his administration is increasingly authoritarian and is threatening to make officially-secular Turkey into a conservative Islamic state.

Interior Minister Muammer Guler said more than 1,700 people had been detained in protests that have spread to 67 cities, though most have since been released.

“A large majority of the detainees were released after being questioned and identified,” he said in remarks carried by the state-run Anatolia news agency.

 ops also clashed with protesters in Istanbul, but it wasn’t like the police violence that occurred early in the demonstrations that brought rebukes from the US, European Union and international rights groups.