Turkey Riot:There was a dangerous polarization in Turkey, Video / Breaking News
The rally came as riot police continued to fire tear gas and jets of water at pockets of demonstrators determined to regroup after being evicted from Gezi Park.
Some six miles away from Taksim Square, buses unloaded loyal supporters of Mr Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) for an election rally billed as a show of strength.
“May the hands that touch the police be broken … the people are here, where are the looters?” the supporters chanted.
The show of support for Mr Erdogan came a day after the AKP held a similar election rally in the capital Ankara, where Mr Erdogan had some combative words for the protest movement.
“This country’s security forces know how to evacuate (Gezi Park),” he told a sea of cheering loyalists waving red Turkish flags.
“Nobody can intimidate us. We don’t take orders or instructions from anybody except from God.”
Police have cordoned off Taksim Square as they attempt to permanently quell the anti-government protests in Istanbul.
The move came hours after riot officers cleared the square and stormed the park to clear out protestors following an ultimatum issued by Mr Erdogan.
It was the first time that police had entered the makeshift tent city in Gezi Park, which has transformed into a national symbol of resistance.
After dispersing demonstrators from nearby Taksim Square, police reportedly began their park eviction shouting: “This is an illegal act, this is our last warning to you – evacuate.”
Firing tear gas and water cannon, it took them less than half an hour to bring to an end to the occupation that started 18 days ago.
Afterwards the bulldozers moved in, scooping up debris as crews of workmen tore down banners and tents.
Protesters put up little physical resistance but several people were brought out of the park on stretchers to waiting ambulances, according to reports.
Tayfun Kahraman, a member of Taksim Solidarity, an umbrella group of protest movements, told the Associated Press that a number of people in the park had been injured – some from rubber bullets.
He went on to say: “Let them keep the park, we don’t care anymore. Let it all be theirs. This crackdown has to stop. The people are in a terrible state.”
But despite the eviction, thousands of people have reportedly taken to the streets again and have begun building barricades on a main avenue to Taksim Square.
A witness told Reuters that police fired tear gas canisters into back streets around the square for several hours after the raid to try to prevent crowds from regrouping.
For more than two weeks, hundreds of activists had camped in the park, which adjoins the city’s central Taksim Square where protesters have also gathered.
Mr Erdogan had called on them to withdraw and promised to hold a vote on plans to redevelop the site in a bid to appease them.
But the crowds decided to ignore a final warning to leave after the government failed to meet demands, including the release of detained demonstrators.
A heavy-handed police intervention on May 31 against those protesting against shopping mall redevelopment plans for Gezi Park, one of Istanbul’s few green spaces, had sparked the biggest anti-government protests in Turkey in decades.
The protests, which at one point spread to dozens of Turkish cities and towns, turned into a much broader expression of discontent about Mr Erdogan and his government, and what many say is his increasingly authoritarian rule.
Mr Erdogan, who was elected with 50% of the vote for his third term in 2011, vehemently rejects the accusations by protesters and points to his strong support base.
Watch Video Turkey Riot 19th day
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