International

     Everyone who enters Istanbul’s Taksim Square, the heart of nearly 20-day-long protests against the government, will be considered a member or a supporter of a terrorist organization, Turkey’s European Union minister said in a televised interview late last night.
    
     “I requests our citizens, who supported the protests until today, to kindly return their homes,” Minister Egemen Bağış said in an interview on broadcaster A Haber.
    
     “From now on the state will unfortunately have to consider everyone who remains there as a supporter or member of the terror organization,” he said. “Our prime minister has already assured [activist] about their aim with the protests. The protests from now on will play into hands of some separatist organizations which want to break peace and prioritize vandalism and terrorism.”
    
     Highest ranking Turkish officials have been posting warnings on the issue and everyone should act in a sensitive manner, he said.
    
     Clashes between the police and protesters in Istanbul continued around the square along with some other parts of the city until this morning.
    
     Bağış repeated his criticism on foreign media for exaggerating the protests in Turkey.
    
     “Unfortunately, the foreign press is in a big mistake in this issue,” he said, saying that they wanted to reflect Turkey as a country where life is halted.
    
     “Hours-long broadcasting which are even not interrupted by commercials, have damaged Turkey’s image,” he said.
    
     “But these long broadcastings sure have a financial reason, and these will be revealed. International channels such as BBC, CNN never do such broıadcasting without any advertisement. Somebody, somehow financed these broadcasts, Like our prime minister said, the loss of the interest rate lobby has exceeded $650 billion in turkey due to the low interest rates,” he said adding that this was a a result of the government’s dedication. “They are crazy about this, and making everything to disturb the clam in our country and win back their losses.”