Strongly suggesting that if the secular protesters don’t stop agitating against his increasingly Islamic supremacist regime, Allah will be very, very angry with them. “Turkey’s prime minister invokes Allah, demands protests end immediately,” by Humeyra Pamuk and Ayla Jean Yackley for Reuters, June 7 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):
ISTANBUL — Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan flew back to a Turkey rocked by days of anti-government unrest on Friday and declared before a sea of flag-waving supporters at Istanbul airport: “These protests must end immediately.”
“No power but Allah can stop Turkey’s rise,” he told thousands who gathered in the early hours to greet him in the first pro-Erdogan rally since demonstrations began a week ago.
At Istanbul’s Taksim Square, the center of the protests and now occupied by thousands around the clock, some chanted “Tayyip resign” as they watched a broadcast of the address. In the capital, Ankara, the Kugulu Park echoed with anti-government slogans, while protesters danced or sang the national anthem.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan greets supporters in Istanbul on Friday upon his return to a protest-rocked country. “These protests must end immediately,” he declared in front of the crowd.
Speaking from an open-top bus at the airport, his wife at his side, Erdogan acknowledged police might have used excessive force in crushing a small demonstration against a building project last Friday — the action that triggered nationwide protests against his 10-year rule.
“However, no one has the right to attack us through this. May Allah preserve our fraternity and unity. We will have nothing to do with fighting and vandalism. … The secret to our success is not tension and polarization,” Erdogan told the crowd.
“The police are doing their duty. These protests, which have turned into vandalism and utter lawlessness, must end immediately,” he added.
He gave no indication of any immediate plans to remove the makeshift protest camps that have appeared on Taksim Square and a park in Ankara. But the gatherings mark a clear challenge to his declarations….
Supporters of Erdogan, who enjoys strong support in Turkey’s conservative heartland, chanted “Don’t rest our patience” and “Istanbul is here” and waved the Turkish flag — a white crescent moon and star on a red background — and the banner of Erdogan’s AKP party, the image of a light bulb.
Erdogan swept to power in 2002 shortly after founding the AKP from conservative Islamists, nationalists and center-right elements. In a decade he has transformed the economy, tripling per capita income, introduced some rights reforms and reining in an army that had toppled four governments in 40 years.
But critics say more recently he has become increasingly authoritarian and has pursued by stealth an Islamist agenda challenging nine decades of state secularism, something he denies. They accuse him of arrogance born of three election victories, the last built on a 50 percent vote.
Erdogan has no clear rivals inside the AKP or outside, where the opposition, both on the streets and in parliament, is fragmented.
Among the demonstrators are nationalists, leftists, students, unionists and middle-class professionals who accuse Erdogan of adopting an authoritarian style of government….