On Tuesday, as hundreds of thousands of protesters gathered in Cairo, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan called on Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to "listen to people's outcries and extremely humanistic demands" and continued his advice:
Meet the freedom demands of people without a doubt. In today’s world, freedoms cannot be postponed or overlooked.
We are mortal. We will all die and be judged by those who remain. As Muslims, our final address is a two-cubic-meter hole. What matters is to be remembered with respect. We should listen to the voice of our conscience and the voice of our people and be ready either for their good prayers or curses. We are for the people; we are in the service of the people.
Turkey will continue to stand side-by-side with both the Tunisian and Egyptian people and continue to share their hope and happiness.
The head of the Republican People’s Party, or CHP, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, called on demonstrators to adopt Mustafa Kemal Ataturk's ideas from the 1920s: "Take Turkey as a model. The model of the Republic of Turkey. Mustafa Kemal’s model ... This is the libertarian model. Respect for human rights, gender equality [and the] social state."
The voice of criticism of Turkish politics came from the Peace and Democracy Party, or BDP. Its head, Selahattin Demirtas, said: "This man [Mubarak] has been a dictator for the last 30 years. Erdoğan has waited to see the Americans’ [stance] before acting. In fact, we had to support the people in upheaval against a dictator."
Demirtas had stated on Saturday, again with an eye closer to home, "Like in Tunisia and Egypt, people have the right to resist if the governments are cruel!"