REPORT: Turkish PM tells supporters to prepare for rallies

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Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, facing the biggest protests of his tenure, called on his supporters to prepare for pro-government rallies next weekend in Istanbul and Ankara, as riot police fired tear gas and water cannon to clear protesters from an Ankara square.

"On Saturday, are you ready for a big Ankara meeting? ... The next day we will have the Istanbul meeting," Erdogan said to cheering crowds in Ankara, as riot police moved in against protesters just a few kilometers away.

On another note, Erdogan said the country's financial markets were under attack by domestic and international speculators and urged people to put their money in state rather than private banks.

"If the Istanbul bourse collapses, you (the speculators) will be under the rubble, not Tayyip Erdogan," he told crowds of cheering supporters in the capital Ankara, after a week of the fiercest anti-government demonstrations in years.

This comes as Erdogan told thousands of cheering supporters that his patience had its limits after days of protests, while tens of thousands of anti-government demonstrators gathered at a rival rally in central Istanbul.

"We were patient, we will be patient, but there is an end to patience," Erdogan told crowds gathered at Ankara airport who were chanting slogans including "We are ready to sacrifice our lives for you Tayyip!".

Earlier in the day, Turkey's PM has given a speech from the top of a bus making it clear that he has no intention of backing down in the face of 10 days of anti-government protesters.

Erdogan once again condemned his opponents as "looters," and he did that Sunday in the southern city of Adana, where pro- and anti- government protesters had clashed the night before.

However, he also asked his supporters not to engage in any violence, predicting that his party would defeat those who oppose it during local elections in March.


AP/REUTERS

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