Protesters clashed with police again as Turkey’s prime minister rejected claims that he is a “dictator,” dismissing demonstrators as an extremist fringe.
Over the past three days, protesters have unleashed pent-up resentment against Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who after 10 years in office many Turks see as an uncompromising figure with too much power.
A hugeprotest in Taksim Square subsided overnight, but an estimated 10,000 people again streamed into the area yesterday, many waving flags, chanting “victory, victory, victory” and calling on Erdogan’s government to resign.
In Istanbul’s Taksim Square, dozens of people climbed on the roof of a cultural centre that Erdogan says will be demolished and turned into an opera hall.
Erdogan said later: “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.”