Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was due back in Turkey Thursday after a trip abroad, with thousands of angry demonstrators calling for his resignation as protests entered a seventh day.

Deputy prime minister Huseyin Celik has urged party supporters not to flock to the airport to welcome him back so as not to inflame tensions.

"The prime minister does not need a show of power," he told a local television channel, Wednesday.

When Erdogan flew out of Turkey Monday on a four-day visit to north Africa, he had dismissed the protests, saying they would have died down before he returned.

They were still going strong Wednesday, though that day saw the first confrontations between ruling party supporters and protesters.