Turkey’s Prime Minister remained defiant on Sunday after 10 days of anti-government protests, travelling to two cities where unrest has occurred and condemning the demonstrators as “a handful of looters.”
In the Southern city of Adana, where pro- and anti-government protesters had clashed on Saturday night, Recep Tayyip Erdogan made a fiery speech from the top of a bus.
“We won’t do what a handful of looters have done. They burn and destroy.... They destroy the shops of civilians. They destroy the cars of civilians,” Erdogan told supporters who had greeted him at Adana airport. “They are low enough to insult the prime minister of this country.” He urged his supporters to avoid violence and predicted that his Islamic-rooted party would defeat his opponents during local elections in March.
“As long as you walk with us, the Justice and Development Party administration will stand strong,” Erdogan said, referring to his party. “As long as there is life in my body, your prime minister and your party chairman, God willing, will not be deterred by anything.”
He then traveled to the city of Mersin, where anti-protests have been held, to make a similar speech and to open new sports facilities. later Sunday, Erdogan was scheduled to travel to Ankara, the capital, where supporters are again expected to greet him in a show of force. In Adana on late Saturday, a pro-government group hurled stones at marching anti-government demonstrators, the State-run Anadolu Agency said. Police evacuated women and children, but the two groups continued to clash with stones and batons.
It was the second time in last 10 days of protests that pro- and anti- demonstrated had fought with one another. On Thursday, party supporters attacked about 30 protesters in the city of Rize, on Turkey’s Black Sea coast.