Istanbul: Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan headed home from an overseas trip today, defiantly vowing to press ahead with plans to redevelop a park that have prompted a week of violent protests he said were stoked by 'terrorists'.
The nationwide clashes sparked by protests against his conservative reforms have claimed a third life with the death of a policeman, media said, raising the pressure on the premier as he was due to fly back to Istanbul from Tunisia.
Away for four days on an official trip to North Africa, Mr Erdogan has refused to bow to the protesters against his Islamic-rooted AKP party, dismissing them as "extremists" and saying everything would calm down before he returned.
Speaking in Tunis today, Mr Erdogan reiterated his claims that extremists and foreign agitators were to blame for the violence, and refused again to cancel a controversial Istanbul park redevelopment that sparked the protests.
Fresh violence erupted overnight in the capital Ankara but Istanbul, where the unrest started on May 31, was relatively calm after six nights of unrest.
His death marks the first police fatality in seven days of clashes, with two young male protesters killed earlier.
"I'm afraid because I don't know what he will do," said chemistry student Ezgi Ozbilgin, 24, who camped out in the park overnight.
Mr Erdogan earlier said that he could "mobilise a million supporters of my party" if he had to.
Opposition to him is intense, but the 59-year-old has won three elections in a row and gained almost 50 percent of votes in 2011, having presided over strong economic growth in recent years.
The pro-AKP half of Turkey has remained largely silent in the past week of unrest, but CNN-Turk television reported on Thursday that several hundred people attacked a group of 25 youths who staged an anti-government protest in the Black Sea port of Rize, Erdogan's native town.
Deputy Prime Minister Huseyin Celik urged AKP supporters not to flock to the airport to welcome Erdogan back, to avoid inflaming tensions.
"The prime minister does not need a show of power," he told a local television channel.
'Not a second-class democracy'
The national doctors' union has said more than 4,300 have been injured in recent days, 47 of them seriously.
Mr Erdogan's critics accuse him of forcing conservative Islamic values on Turkey, a mainly Muslim but staunchly secular nation.
They say he has become increasingly authoritarian.
Turkey, while acknowledging some police excesses, has hit back at criticism of its handling of the crisis, a Turkish foreign ministry source told AFP on Wednesday.
The diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu had told US Secretary of State John Kerry in a phone call Tuesday: "Turkey is not a second-class democracy."
The US State Department later denied suggestions this was Washington's view of its NATO ally, a key strategic partner in the region, but said it had concerns "about instances of police brutality".
Other Western allies of Turkey - a country that straddles East and West and has long aspired to join the European Union - have also voiced concern over the violence.
In the premier's absence, Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc apologised to wounded protesters and met some of their leaders, but his gestures did not calm what has become the biggest challenge yet to Erdogan's decade-long leadership.
"He doesn't understand what's going on here," 30-year-old Ozlem Altiok said as she sat in the shade of a tree in Gezi Park, the small patch of green whose preservation fight sparked the flame of the unrest.
"We won't be quiet until he goes."
The nationwide clashes sparked by protests against his conservative reforms have claimed a third life with the death of a policeman, media said, raising the pressure on the premier as he was due to fly back to Istanbul from Tunisia.
Away for four days on an official trip to North Africa, Mr Erdogan has refused to bow to the protesters against his Islamic-rooted AKP party, dismissing them as "extremists" and saying everything would calm down before he returned.
Speaking in Tunis today, Mr Erdogan reiterated his claims that extremists and foreign agitators were to blame for the violence, and refused again to cancel a controversial Istanbul park redevelopment that sparked the protests.
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Fresh violence erupted overnight in the capital Ankara but Istanbul, where the unrest started on May 31, was relatively calm after six nights of unrest.
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His death marks the first police fatality in seven days of clashes, with two young male protesters killed earlier.
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"I'm afraid because I don't know what he will do," said chemistry student Ezgi Ozbilgin, 24, who camped out in the park overnight.
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Mr Erdogan earlier said that he could "mobilise a million supporters of my party" if he had to.
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Opposition to him is intense, but the 59-year-old has won three elections in a row and gained almost 50 percent of votes in 2011, having presided over strong economic growth in recent years.
The pro-AKP half of Turkey has remained largely silent in the past week of unrest, but CNN-Turk television reported on Thursday that several hundred people attacked a group of 25 youths who staged an anti-government protest in the Black Sea port of Rize, Erdogan's native town.
Deputy Prime Minister Huseyin Celik urged AKP supporters not to flock to the airport to welcome Erdogan back, to avoid inflaming tensions.
"The prime minister does not need a show of power," he told a local television channel.
'Not a second-class democracy'
The national doctors' union has said more than 4,300 have been injured in recent days, 47 of them seriously.
Mr Erdogan's critics accuse him of forcing conservative Islamic values on Turkey, a mainly Muslim but staunchly secular nation.
They say he has become increasingly authoritarian.
Turkey, while acknowledging some police excesses, has hit back at criticism of its handling of the crisis, a Turkish foreign ministry source told AFP on Wednesday.
The diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu had told US Secretary of State John Kerry in a phone call Tuesday: "Turkey is not a second-class democracy."
The US State Department later denied suggestions this was Washington's view of its NATO ally, a key strategic partner in the region, but said it had concerns "about instances of police brutality".
Other Western allies of Turkey - a country that straddles East and West and has long aspired to join the European Union - have also voiced concern over the violence.
In the premier's absence, Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc apologised to wounded protesters and met some of their leaders, but his gestures did not calm what has become the biggest challenge yet to Erdogan's decade-long leadership.
"He doesn't understand what's going on here," 30-year-old Ozlem Altiok said as she sat in the shade of a tree in Gezi Park, the small patch of green whose preservation fight sparked the flame of the unrest.
"We won't be quiet until he goes."
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