HALC: Erdogan response to Turkey protests “defiant,” “tone-deaf”

PanARMENIAN.Net - The Hellenic American Leadership Council (HALC) slammed Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s response to the currently raging anti-government protests.

“Erdogan has said some pretty extraordinary things. His reaction has been called “defiant,” “tone-deaf,” and indicative of his “reputation for arrogance”,” HALC said, citing some of his worst statements since the protests began last week.

Erdogan called peaceful protestors “extremists” who align themselves with terrorism.

He further called the protestors “bums,” promising to build a mosque in Taksim square. “We will build a mosque in Taksim and we do not need the permission of the CHP [Republican People's Party, the main opposition party in Parliament] or of a few bums to do it,” Erdogan said.

“There is now a menace which is called Twitter. The best examples of lies can be found there. To me, social media is the worst menace to society,” he said.

Erdogan also noted that all attempts [to influence government] apart from the ballot box “are not democratic.”

“If this is about holding meetings, if this is a social movement, where they gather 20, I will get up and gather 200,000 people. Where they gather 100,000, I will bring together one million from my party,” HALC website quoted Erdogan as saying.