Turkey's prime minister has rejected talk of a "Turkish spring", facing down the worst protests in his decade-long rule as fresh clashes erupted between police and demonstrators in Ankara.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan defied protesters who accuse him of seeking to impose conservative Islamic reforms on secular Turkey, stressing that he was democratically elected.
"Was there a multi-party system in the Arab Spring countries?" he said in televised comments.
Police in the capital later fired tear gas and used water cannon to disperse stone-throwing demonstrators on the fourth day of violent protests that have swept scores of Turkish cities.
Rights groups say hundreds have been wounded in clashes nationwide that have pitted stone-throwing protesters against riot police since Friday.
In one incident, a 20-year-old Turkish man died when a taxi drove into a group of demonstrators on an Istanbul highway, also injuring four others.
Mr Erdogan's ally, president Abdullah Gul, urged calm and promised protesters that their voice had been heard.
"The messages delivered with good intentions have been received," he was quoted as saying quoted by the Anatolia news agency.
Mr Erdogan struck a harder tone, vowing "we will stand firm" against the protests and promising his supporters "we'll overcome this".
With Turkey's allies calling for restraint and international human rights groups denouncing the police crackdown, Mr Gul acknowledged the demonstrators' right to protest but called for an end to the clashes.
"Democracy does not only mean elections," he said, adding: "I am calling on all my citizens to abide by the rules and state their objections and views in a peaceful way, as they have already done."
Mr Erdogan had earlier denounced demonstrators as "vandals".
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