Amid protests, Turkey leader rejects claims he is a ‘dictator’
ISTANBUL — Turkey’s prime minister on Sunday rejected claims that he is an authoritarian leader, dismissing protesters as an extremist fringe even as hundreds moved back into the square that was the site of the fiercest anti-government outburst in years.
Over the past three days, protesters around the country have unleashed pent-up resentment against Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who after 10 years in office many secular Turks see as an uncompromising figure with undue influence in every part of life.
A huge, exuberant protest in Taksim Square subsided overnight, but hundreds of people were streaming into the area again on Sunday and some1,500 people were assembling in a square in Ankara, the capital.
Many waved flags, sang and called on Erdogan to resign. Some protesters have compared him to a sultan and denounced him as a dictator.
“If they call someone who has served the people a ‘dictator,’ I have nothing to say,” Erdogan said in an address to a group representing migrants from the Balkans. “My only concern has been to serve my country.”
In another speech delivered an hour later, Erdogan said: “I am not the master of the people. Dictator- ship does not run in my blood or in my character. I am the servant of the people.”
The demonstrations were ignited by a violent police crackdown on a peaceful sit-in to prevent the uprooting of trees at Istanbul’s Taksim Square.