Erdogan calls for an immediate halt to Turkey protests Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey's prime minister, has returned to Istanbul in uncompromising mood, calling on the demonstrators who have shaken the country to return home and hitting out at financial speculators. Arriving at Istanbul's Ataturk airport in the early hours of Friday where he was greeted by thousands of supporters Mr Erdogan called for an "immediate halt" to the "illegal protests," warning that those on the streets risked being manipulated by terrorist organisations. Mr Erdogan, who was returning from a tour of north Africa, added that his ruling Justice and Development party, or AKP, would neither seek to raise tensions nor polarise issues. After the stock market had tumbled into bear market territory on Thursday following previous uncompromising remarks by Mr Erdogan, the prime minister also suggested that instability in Turkey's financial markets was due to an "interest rate lobby" working against Turkey and seeking to reduce its growth. "This lobby now believes it is threatening Turkey with speculation in the markets," Mr Erdogan said. But God is the only power that can stop Turkey's rise. On Friday, in early trade, Turkey's stockmarket edged lower at 0.7 per cent below Thursday's close. Mr Erdogan said he was opposed to bank managers who sympathised with the demonstrators. Ergun Ozen, chief executive of Garanti, one of Turkey's biggest banks, recently described himself as a "looter" - a label the protesters now jokingly apply to themselves after the prime minister denounced them as criminals. "If a bank chief executive says he is on the side of those who organised this vandalism, he will have to deal with us," Mr Erdogan said. Timothy Ash of Standard Bank said Mr Erdogan's reference to the interest rate lobby "suggests that he is broadening out the counter-offensive to include some domestic banks and also to foreign investors . . . the very people who have bought into the AKP success story over the past decade, and have helped the party along the way by buying government debt and financing the country cheaply." On Thursday the country's main stock index, the BIST 100, fell more than 7 per cent before recovering to close 4.7 per cent down, while the euro gained 0.5 per cent against the lira to Tl2.4862, although the Turkish currency was broadly unchanged against the dollar. The market fall took Turkey's stock exchange to 20 per cent below its recent high, meeting the definition of a bear market. The slide was prompted by Mr Erdogan's earlier comments on Thursday in which he insisted the government would press ahead with plans to build a reconstruction of an Ottoman barracks in Gezi Park in Istanbul - the project that first sparked the street protests. While some commentators had suggested that the AKP would seek to turn the prime minister's return into a show of popular support, Huseyin Celik, a leading party official, had urged supporters not to greet Mr Erdogan at the airport - an apparent attempt to prevent tensions from building further.