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Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called for protests across the country to end immediately, BBC reported.

At Istanbul airport he told crowds of supporters who were welcoming him home from a four-day North Africa tour that the protests bordered on illegality.

But as he spoke, thousands of anti-government protesters were also rallying in Istanbul's Taksim Square.

The unrest began as a local protest over a park in Istanbul but spiralled into nationwide demonstrations.

An estimated 10,000 supporters of Mr Erdogan's AKP party descended on the airport to welcome him home in the early hours of Friday.

Standing alongside his wife and government ministers on an open-top bus, he told the crowd: "These protests that are bordering on illegality must come to an end as of now."

At times Mr Erdogan was almost drowned out by the cheering and chanting of his supporters.

"We have never been for building tension and polarisation, but we cannot applaud brutality," he said.

Some of his supporters chanted: "Let us go, let's crush Taksim."

However, Mr Erdogan urged them to "go home" peacefully.

"You have remained calm, mature and showed common sense," he said. "We're all going to go home from here."

Mr Erdogan responded to calls for his resignation by referring to his election victory in 2011 when he took 50% of the vote.

"They say I am the prime minister of only 50%. It's not true. We have served the whole of the 76 million from the east to the west," he told the crowd.