2013-06-07 08:57:42

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.

Listen to the report by Laura Ieraci: RealAudioMP3








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