Erdogan returns to Turkey, calls for end to violence
(Vatican Radio) Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan returned to Turkey on
Friday, after a four-day trip of North Africa. He told the supporters gathered to
greet him that the violent protests, which have swept through Turkey this past week,
must come to an end.
Standing atop an open-air bus at Istanbul’s international
airport, Erdogan told a cheering crowd of more than 10,000 that the violence and brutality
must end immediately.
Government supporters were awaiting their leader’s return
in the hope that his words would help bring tensions under control.
In a speech
broadcast live on television Friday morning, he warned the protests bordered on illegality
and urged Turks to distance themselves from the protests.
He said: “We have
never been for building tension and polarization. But we cannot applaud brutality.''
"We
are together, we are unified, we are brothers," he told the crowd.
A day earlier
in Tunis, he told a press conference that terrorist groups were involved in manipulating
the Turkish protesters and referred to the protesters as looters. He also acknowledged
that excessive police force might have been used and promised it would be investigated.
What
began May 31 as a small protest against a plan to develop Istanbul's central Taksim
Square has, over the past week, erupted into hundreds of anti-government protests
in about 80 cities in a public venting of the prime minister’s perceived increasing
arrogance and authoritarianism.
Three people died and more than 4,000 were
wounded in the past week's protests. Eighty protesters remain in the hospital. Damages
caused by the protests to date are estimated at $37 million.
In the face of
the current civil unrest, Erdogan has made no mention of any intention to step down.