Turkish Prime Minister: Twitter is the worst threat to society

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan rejected accusations of dictatorship and called on his compatriots to remain calm, writes The Guardian .

"If they (protesters) call someone who serves the people a 'dictator,' I have nothing to say," Erdogan said. "My only concern is to serve my country."

In another speech, the prime minister said: "I am not the master of my fellow citizens. Dictatorship is not in my nature, I am a servant of the people."

Erdogan called the protests “political”, provoked by those oppositionists who could not win the elections. He said 89 police cars, 42 cars, four buses and 94 private businesses were damaged by vandals over the past two days.

“Now there is such a threat called Twitter,” Erdogan said. “There you can find exemplary examples of lies. As for me, social media is the worst threat to society.”

The Prime Minister called on the people of Turkey to calm down and “not succumb to provocations organized by extremist elements.” “Calm down, we will overcome this,” he said.

Street protests in different cities of Turkey: Istanbul, Ankara, Antalya and others have been continuing since the end of last week. The reason for the protest was the authorities' intention to build a shopping and entertainment complex on the site of Gezi Park in Istanbul. On Friday, about 2,000 people were arrested during clashes between protesters and law enforcement officers.

Protests continued on Monday. In the port city of Izmir, the third most populous in the country, demonstrators attacked the office of Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party. They threw a Molotov cocktail into the building, causing a fire. In Istanbul on Monday morning, protesters tried to break into the prime minister's office, but police drove them away with tear gas.