Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was protested by three young people who were waiting at a bus stop when the head of state passed by on his way home to his house in Üsküdar on the Asian side of Istanbul. He was coming from his office at the Dolmabahçe Palace on the European banks of the Bosporus.

The bodyguards of the prime minister immediately intervened against the three protestors who were arrested thereupon.

As reported by the CNN Türk news channel, PM Erdoğan had held a meeting with Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping at the Dolmabahçe Palace.

The three young people, one woman and two men, were standing at a bus stop in Altunizade (Asian side of Istanbul) and shouted their protest when Erdoğan's car was driving by. In an immediate intervention of the prime minister's bodyguards, the three persons were made to enter the vehicle of the bodyguards and were taken to the Üsküdar Head Office of Preventive Services.

They were apparently released after a few hours.

Protestor beaten

Erdoğan had already been protested in a similar situation one day earlier when he was coming back from a meeting with President Abdullah Gül at the Tarabya Mansion, again on the European side of the Bosporus.

Again in Altunizade, a single person protested the prime minister when his convoy was passing by. The bodyguards apparently beat the protestor before he was taken into police custody. They took him into an SUV of the Prime Ministry and left the scene. The person was reportedly detained by the bodyguards. The Prime Ministry did not release any related announcement. (EKN)