Turkey's prime minister has climbed on top of a bus to give a fiery speech to thousands of his supporters, challenging increasingly angry anti-government protesters to beat his party at the ballot box after they flooded the streets for a 10th day of demonstrations. On Sunday Recep Tayyip Erdoğan visited two cities where unrest has occurred and again condemned his detractors as a handful of looters and vandals.
In the southern city of Adana, where pro- and anti-government protesters clashed on Saturday night, Erdoğan greeted supporters before lashing out at his opponents in the polarised country.
"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," Erdoğan told supporters who had greeted him at the local 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. "I want you to give them the first lesson through democratic means in the ballot box," he said. Read on and comment » | Associated Press in Ankara | Sunday, June 09, 2013
