MidnightWatcher – Prophecy in Motion

Sounds like Turkey’s Erdogan refuses to become another sitting duck …

By Humeyra Pamuk and Ayla Jean Yackley, Reuters – “ISTANBUL — Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan flew back to a Turkey rocked by days of anti-government unrest on Friday and declared before a sea of flag-waving supporters at Istanbul airport: ‘These protests must end immediately.’

‘No power but Allah can stop Turkey’s rise,’ he told thousands who gathered in the early hours to greet him in the first pro-Erdogan rally since demonstrations began a week ago.

At Istanbul’s Taksim Square, the center of the protests and now occupied by thousands around the clock, some chanted ‘Tayyip resign’ as they watched a broadcast of the address. In the capital, Ankara, the Kugulu Park echoed with anti-government slogans, while protesters danced or sang the national anthem.

Speaking from an open-top bus at the airport, his wife at his side, Erdogan acknowledged police might have used excessive force in crushing a small demonstration against a building project last Friday — the action that triggered nationwide protests against his 10-year rule.

‘However, no one has the right to attack us through this. May Allah preserve our fraternity and unity. We will have nothing to do with fighting and vandalism. … The secret to our success is not tension and polarization,’ Erdogan told the crowd.

‘The police are doing their duty. These protests, which have turned into vandalism and utter lawlessness, must end immediately,’ he added.

He gave no indication of any immediate plans to remove the makeshift protest camps that have appeared on Taksim Square and a park in Ankara. But the gatherings mark a clear challenge to his declarations.

Western governments including the United States, which sees Turkey as a key NATO ally in the Middle East, bordering Iran, Iraq and Syria, have expressed concern about heavy-handed police action.” Read more.

Flashback: Turkey’s Erdogan

• Turkish Prime Minister Erdoğan — The Man Who Could Trigger a World War
• Turkey: Erdogan Wants to Revive Ottoman Empire
• ‘With Turkey Flexing its Muscles, We May Soon Face a Revived Ottoman Empire’
• Turkey’s Emerging Islamist Autocracy May Soon Become ‘The Greatest Threat To Israel’
• Israel: Turkey Will Become Mideast ‘Superpower’
• Syria: Turkey’s Erdogan Thinks He Is The New Sultan Of The Ottoman Empire, ‘In His Heart He Thinks He Is A Caliph’