REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, BANGKOK - Protesters in Thailand stormed the grounds of the national army headquarters on Friday, asking the military to support their increasingly tense campaign to topple Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra.

In a letter addressed to the army chief, the protesters stopped short of calling for a coup but urged military leaders to "take a stand" in Thailand's spiraling political crisis and state which side they are on.

The crowd of 1,200 people stayed on the sprawling lawn of the Royal Thai Army compound for two hours before filing out peacefully. It was a bold act heavy with symbolism in a country that has experienced 18 successful or attempted military coups since the 1930s.

The most recent was in 2006, when the military ousted Yingluck's brother, former leader Thaksin Shinawatra, who is living overseas to avoid a corruption conviction but is central toThailand's political conflict.

For the past week, thousands of anti-government protesters have marched in Bangkok in a bid to unseat Yingluck, whom they accuse of serving as a proxy for her billionaire brother. Thaksin is adored by much of the country's rural poor and despised by the educated elite and middle-class who accuse him of widespread corruption and other offenses.

Leaders of the protests say their goal is not just to force Yingluck out of office but to rid the country of Thaksin's influence in politics.

Asked if she planned to call early elections, Yingluck told the BBC on Friday that she didn't think snap polls would solve the country's problem.

"You have to ask (if) the protesters (would be) satisfied or not," Yingluck said.

The demonstrations have raised fears of new political turmoil and instability in Thailand and pose the biggest threat to Yingluck's administration since she came to power in 2011.

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