Addressing thousands of supporters who had gathered at Istanbul airport to welcome him home from a four-day North Africa tour, the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged all anti government protesters across the country to end the demonstrations immediately.
"We have never been for building tension and polarization, but we cannot applaud brutality," said Erdogan while addressing his supporters at the airport in the early hours of Friday morning.
"These protests that are bordering on illegality must come to an end as of now," said Erdogan.
The strong crowd that had gathered to welcome the prime minister chanted "we are with you, Erdogan."
"Istanbul don't sleep, defend your leader," shouted the crowd while waving Turkish flags as thousands others across the country were demanding his resignation from the post.
Responding to the wide-spread protests, which are allegedly turning violent, Prime Minister Erdogan emphasized that he was in control of the situation and was in no mood to back off.
"They say I am the prime minister of only 50%. It's not true. We have served the whole of the 76 million from the east to the west," Erdogan told the gathering at the airport, according to the BBC News.
The prime minister advised his supporters to remain "calm" and go "home" as some of them chanted "let us go, let's crush Taksim."
Protests in Turkey initially started following the government's crackdown on a group of environmental activists protesting plans to convert a park into a shopping mall in Istanbul's Taksim Square.
The demonstrations have attracted tens of thousands of people from all walks of life, demanding the resignation of the prime minister saying he is "arrogant" and "autocratic."
Mr. Erdogan earlier dismissed the protesters as "extremists" and "vandals."
