Turkish PM Erdogan on campaign trail after violent anti-govt protests

PanARMENIAN.Net - Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan kicks off a weekend of rallies in his conservative strongholds on Friday, June 21 displaying his grassroots support after weeks of often violent anti-government protests, Reuters reported.

Tens of thousands are expected to gather in a square in Kayseri, an industrial city in Turkey's pious Anatolian heartland, to hear the blunt-talking 59-year-old urge voters to back his ruling AK Party before municipal polls next March. Similar rallies are planned for the weekend in the eastern city of Erzurum and Samsun on the Black Sea coast.

The meetings follow three weeks of protests against Erdogan's perceived authoritarianism, unrest which dented Turkey's image for stability and riled a leader who sees himself as a champion of democratic reform.

He has dismissed the protesters as "riff-raff" manipulated by "terrorists" and has accused foreign forces, international media and market speculators of seeking to stoke the unrest in what he has termed a "game being played with Turkey".

Erdogan, who won his third consecutive election in 2011 with 50 percent support, has enacted democratic reforms, including curbing powers of an army that toppled four governments in four decades and pursuing an end to 30 years of Kurdish rebellion.

But he brooks little dissent. Hundreds of military officers have been jailed on charges of plotting a coup against Erdogan; others, including academics, journalists and politicians, face trial on similar accusations.

Among the large section of Turkey's 76 million people who do not back him, Erdogan is viewed as increasingly authoritarian and too quick to meddle in their private lives. Recent restrictions on the sale of alcohol have fuelled their suspicions that he has a creeping Islamist agenda.