Erdogan: Pepper gas use by police 'a mistake'

As protests continued to plague Istanbul, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan made his first public response to the protests. “There was a mistake in using pepper gas by police forces," he said, adding that "I have ordered the Interior Ministry to investigate this. It was excessive.”

Nonetheless, Erdogan rejected calls to pull the police out of Taksim, the main site of protests. “Police were there, are there and will be there,” he said. (Ynet)