Turkish PM blames protests on extremists
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is calling for calm and blaming "extremist elements" for days of anti-government protests.
Erdogan spoke Monday before a planned visit to Morocco.
Taksim Square in Istanbul was calm Monday morning, but still had banners, remnants of barriers and other debris left from days of protests that have been the biggest in Turkey in years.
The demonstrations started as a demand to stop an urban redevelopment plan on park land, but have more broadly included criticism of Erdogan's government.
Police in Istanbul and Ankara used tear gas early Monday to disperse protesters, some of whom had marched on Erdogan's offices.
Turkey's Interior Ministry said Sunday more than 1,700 people had been detained since last week, but that most have since been released.
The police crackdown on protesters in Istanbul appeared to anger many secular Turks who accuse Erdogan's decade-old, Islamist-rooted government of becoming increasingly authoritarian.
International rights groups strongly criticized the crackdown as excessive, while Turkey's Western allies, including the United States, urged the government to uphold freedom of expression and exercise restraint, reports Voice of America citing AP, AFP and Reuters.
