The mass protests that have engulfed Turkey are "under control", the government said Saturday, as thousands defied Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's call to end their demonstrations.

"We are ready to listen to all reasonable, legal and democratic demands," said Deputy Prime Minister Huseyin Celik on a ninth day of demonstrations against Erdogan and his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).

A small Istanbul park whose conservation fight sparked mass protests will not be turned into a shopping mall, the city's mayor assured protesters Friday, but insisted the site's controversial redevelopment would go ahead.

"We are definitely not thinking of building a shopping mall there, no hotel or residence either. It can be... a city museum or an exhibition center," Istanbul mayor Kadir Topbas told reporters.

Thousands of angry Turks took to the streets on Saturday to join mass anti-government protests, defying Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's call to end the worst civil unrest of his decade-long rule.

From the early morning, protesters began arriving in Istanbul's Taksim Square with food and blankets to settle in for a weekend of demonstrations, adding to the growing tent city in nearby Gezi Park.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday his Islamic-rooted government opposed violence and was open to "democratic demands" raised by demonstrators whose mass protests have rocked the country.

"What we are against is terrorism, violence, vandalism and actions that threaten others for the sake of freedoms," Erdogan said in a televised conference in Istanbul. "I'm open-hearted to anyone with democratic demands."

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Friday urged the Turkish government to renounce violence against protesters, after deadly unrest in the country.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan "already told his people that he understands that there are certain problems in the country," she told reporters after talks with Tunisian leader Ali Larayedh.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan called for an immediate end to mass protests against his rule Friday, but urged supporters to "go home" after they staged a major show of strength welcoming him back from an overseas trip.

Waving Turkish flags and chanting "We will die for you, Erdogan" and "Let us go crush them all", supporters of the premier's Justice and Development Party (AKP) displayed their support after keeping largely silent during seven days of violent anti-government demonstrations across the country.

France on Thursday denounced a police crackdown on protesters in Turkey, urging restraint and the respect of the right to demonstrate.

"The police repression has claimed two lives, wounded 2,000 and led to 1,700 arrests, it's too much!" European Affairs Minister Thierry Repentin told the Senate, France's upper house.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Thursday that members of a "terrorist organization" were taking part in deadly anti-government protests sweeping Turkey and refused to cancel a controversial development plan that sparked them.

"Among the protesters, there are extremists, some of them implicated in terrorism," Erdogan told reporters in Tunis on the final day of a north African tour that has been overshadowed by the unrest back home.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was due back in Turkey on Thursday to face thousands of angry demonstrators calling for him to quit, as violence flared between the protesters and his supporters.

Away for four days on an official trip, Erdogan has defied the protesters who are against the conservative policies of his Islamic-rooted AKP party, dismissing them as "extremists" and saying everything would calm down before he returned.

Angered by the lack of coverage of Turkey's violent crisis in the country's mainstream media, Turks are mobilizing via Twitter and Facebook, prompting police to arrest users they accuse of spreading subversion.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has dismissed Twitter as a "troublemaker" that "terrorizes society", ranking it along with the "extremists" he blames for the days of protests against his rule.