Turkish PM: Protesters are ‘walking with terrorism’

Turkish riot police launched round after round of tear gas last night, as prime minister Tayyip Erdogan accused anti-government protesters of walking “arm-in-arm with terrorism”, remarks that could further inflame public anger after some of the most violent riots in decades.

Hundreds of police and protesters have been injured since Friday in the riots, which began with a demonstration to halt construction in a park in an Istanbul square and grew into mass protests against what opponents call Erdogan’s authoritarianism.

Turkey’s leftist Public Workers Unions Confederation (KESK), which represents 240,000 members, said it would hold a “warning strike” today and tomorrow to protest over the crackdown on what had begun as peaceful protests.