Erdogan demands halt to protests

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan yesterday vowed to take tougher action against protestors, saying that they would no longer tolerate massive rallies in Turkey. "We will not only terminate these incidents, we will be on these terrorists’ back in the frame of law. No one will get away with what they did," Erdogan said. Erdogan stated that the activists occupying Gezi Parkı in Taksim were just part of an orchestrated plot against the Justice and Development Party (AKP) by internal and external lobby groups that joined forces to stop the economic and political rise of Turkey. "However, some of the activists have sincere approaches toward the environment," Erdogan said, calling on these youngsters to separate themselves from the illegal groups and to end their occupation of Gezi Park. "I tell these youngsters to leave this place and to end this protest as I believe their sincerity and I kiss their eyes. But I tell those who terrorize and continue these things. This came to an end. There will be no tolerance afterwards. I call on you for restraint," Erdogan underlined. Reiterating the plans to transfer the trees, rather than cut them down, Erdogan accused certain circles of misconstruing the plans to win support for their protests, describing the violent turns as "a mask to cover illegal acts."