PM Remains Defiant Despite Protests Turkey's Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan says he is going ahead with controversial building plans in Istanbul's Taksim Square, despite huge protests. Speaking in Tunisia, prior to his return to Turkey, Mr Erdogan said that groups accused of responsibility for previous violent attacks were manipulating what had started as an environmental protest, adding that a number of foreigners had been arrested. Earlier, supporters of the prime minister were urged not to welcome him on his return home. Speaking after thousands of angry demonstrators had called for the PM's resignation, deputy leader of the ruling party, Huseyin Celik, said: "The prime minister does not need a show of power." When Mr Erdogan flew out of Turkey on Monday - on a four-day visit to north Africa - he dismissed the protests, saying they would have died down before he returned. Protesters sit on top of a wall where anti-government slogans are written However, protests continued, with police on Wednesday evening using tear gas and water cannon to disperse demonstrators in Ankara's central Kizilay Square. A policeman in the southern city of Adana died after falling into an underpass while trying to subdue continued protests in Turkey. Governor Huseyin Avni Cos said the officer died in a hospital after falling into the underpass that was still under construction the previous night. The situation was quieter in Istanbul, for the first time since the unrest began last Friday. It was a heavy-handed police response to a peaceful demonstration in Istanbul that sparked nationwide anti-government protests denouncing PM Erdogan, who has been in power since 2002. Prime Minister Erdogan is accused of becoming increasingly authoritarian Most of the anger has been directed at the prime minister who is accused of becoming increasingly authoritarian and seeking to force conservative Islamic values on Turkey, a mainly Muslim but constitutionally secular nation. Two other people have been killed in the seven days of unrest, according to doctors and officials, who say more than 4,000 people were injured, 43 of them seriously, as police used tear gas, pepper spray and water cannon to break up the protests. The Turkish government, while acknowledging some police excesses, has defending its handling of the crisis, insisting: "Turkey is not a second-class democracy." Turkey's Western allies have voiced concern in recent days over the police violence.