AKP insiders: Erdogan denkt dat de joden achter demonstraties zitten

At least 400 people were detained on Sunday, according to the Istanbul Bar Association, with local news reports saying that some journalists had been among them. One foreign photographer documenting the clashes Saturday night said a police officer had torn his gas mask off him while in a cloud of tear gas, and forced him to clear his memory card of photographs.

Some doctors and nurses who treated protesters were detained by security forces on Sunday, according to the legal offices of the Istanbul Chamber of Doctors. Lawyers have been held by the authorities in recent days. Mr. Erdogan said Sunday that even the owners of luxury hotels near Taksim Square who had provided refuge to protesters fleeing the chaos of the police raid were linked to terrorism.

In some of his toughest language yet, he called his opponents terrorists and made clear that any hope of a compromise to end the crisis was gone. “It is nothing more than the minority’s attempt to dominate the majority,” he said of the protesters. “We will not allow it.”

“CNN International, are you ready for this?” shouted the announcer to the sea of people waving flags bearing Mr. Erdogan’s face and the yellow and white logo of his Justice and Development Party, known by its Turkish initials as A.K.P.

Mr. Erdogan then singled out BBC, CNN and Reuters, saying, “for days, you fabricated news.”

“You portrayed Turkey differently to the world,” he continued. “You are left alone with your lies. This nation is not the one that you misrepresented to the world.”

In an ominous turn, Mr Erdogan declared that the park must be evacuated within 24 hours or it would be cleared by force. Turkey’s American and European friends have been calling increasingly loudly for restraint. Yet Mr Erdogan still seems bent on confrontation. Not only does he belittle the protesters as hoodlums and drunks (he even suggested they had drunk beer and copulated in an Ottoman-era mosque) but he has turned his ire on the foreign press—two Canadian journalists were briefly arrested. In his mind “exaggerated” reports of the events in Taksim Square are part of a global conspiracy by foreign powers who are stirring up trouble to drive up Turkey’s borrowing costs. This will supposedly bring down the economy, and with it Mr Erdogan. Pro-government titles are awash with stories of the roles played by Israel and the Jews. The problem, says an AK insider, “is that the prime minister believes this stuff.”