Erdogan calls protesters extremists

Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan has termed the protesters demonstrating against his government extremists, adding that he is not a dictator as they have called him.

Since Friday, hundreds of thousands of anti-government protesters have held demonstrations in Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, Mugla, Antalya, and other 67 cities and many other towns.

On Sunday, hundred of thousands demonstrators, many waving flags, chanting “victory, victory, victory,” again gathered in Istanbul’s Taksim Square, demanded that Erdogan resign.

On the same day, hundred of thousands people held a demonstration in the capital Ankara that turned violent, with protesters throwing fire bombs and police firing teargas. Several protesters have denounced Erdogan as a dictator and fascist.

“If they call someone who has served the people a ‘dictator,’ I have nothing to say,” Erdogan said in an address on Sunday evening to a group representing migrants from the Balkans. “My only concern has been to serve my country.”

“I am not the master of the people. Dictatorship does not run in my blood or in my character. I am the servant of the people,” Erdogan said in another speech made an hour later.

The Turkish prime minister called the protests “ideological” and organized by an opposition “unable to beat (the government) at the ballot box.”

He added that 89 police vehicles, 42 private cars, four buses and 94 businesses were destroyed by the “vandalism” of the protesters.

On Saturday night, about 5,000 protesters surrounded Erdogan’s office in Istanbul’s Besiktas municipality, located on the European shore of the strait of Bosphorus, and threw stones, injuring at least seven policemen.

Special police forces used tear gas and water cannons to disperse the demonstrators.

Earlier on Saturday, Over 200,000 demonstrators gathered in Taksim Square, demanding that Erdogan step down and calling the government “fascist.”

Thousands of people also took to the streets of other Turkish cities, such as Ankara, Izmir, Mugla, and Antalya, in support of the protesters in Istanbul.

The anti-government unrest began after police broke up a sit-in staged in Taksim Square on Friday to protest against the demolition of Gezi Park.

The protesters say Gezi Park, which is a traditional gathering point for rallies and demonstrations as well as a popular tourist destination, is the city’s last green public space.

Amnesty International censured the Turkish police for the tactics they used to control the protests.

“The use of violence by police on this scale appears designed to deny the right to peaceful protest altogether and to discourage others from taking part,” John Dalhuisen, the director of the Europe and Central Asia Programme of Amnesty International, said on Saturday.

“The Turkish authorities must order police to halt any excessive use of force and urgently investigate all reports of abuse. They have a duty to ensure that people can exercise their right to free expression and assembly,” Dalhuisen added.