Why Erdogan should back down to Turkey's protesters

The embattled Turkish prime minister returns home from abroad under pressure to apologize for a rough crackdown

A photo Turkey Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan
(Image credit: AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)

Turkey's prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, returns home from a four-day trip to North Africa on Thursday to face demands for a personal apology for a harsh crackdown on tens of thousands of protesters that has left at least two people dead and hundreds injured.

Before leaving, Erdogan angered the crowds in the streets by dismissing them as "capulcu" — or looters. His deputy, Bulent Arinc, made a conciliatory gesture in Erdogan's absence, expressing regret for the "excessive use of force" by police against the first small protest, held to protect trees in an Istanbul park.

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Harold Maass, The Week US

Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.