Erdogan Supporters Defend Prime Minister Over Protests

This is a democracy, they say

Ayse sits at her desk, a black-and-white patterned hijab wrapped loosely around her head and her white pharmacist's coat drawn modestly to her chest. She's heard what is happening across town, about the tear-gas trails and plastic bullets, the injured and, now, the dead.

"The protesters believe the government here is a dictatorship," she says. "But Turkey is not like Saudi Arabia: We have democracy here, and many different kinds of people. Fine, if you want to protest, then protest; if you want to drink alcohol, then drink alcohol — the government has not banned it."