The mayor of Istanbul, the target of protester anger during June's mass anti-government street demonstrations, will be running for office again next year, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Thursday.

Kadir Topbas, a member of Erdogan's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), has been nominated to stand for a third term in Turkey's municipal elections next March.

Turkey's popularity in the Middle East has dropped sharply over the past two years, an opinion poll showed Wednesday, reflecting Ankara's sometimes controversial foreign policy strategy.

The biggest decline was registered in Egypt and war-ravaged Syria, where Turkey is strongly opposed to those in power, according to the poll by an Istanbul-based think-tank.

Turkey's ambassador to Cairo has returned home after being expelled in a diplomatic spat over Ankara's support for Egypt's ousted Islamist president, the foreign ministry said Thursday.

The row erupted at the weekend after Turkish Prime Minister Prime Recep Tayyip Erdogan again criticized the military "coup" in Egypt that ousted president Mohamed Morsi in July.

Turkish police and protesters clashed on Thursday at the opening of the trial of two people charged with the death of a young man during anti-government street demonstrations this year.

The trouble occurred as a crowd of about 500 people gathered to seek justice for the 19-year-old victim tried to storm the heavily-protected courthouse in Istanbul, an AFP photographer said.

Riot police used tear gas and water cannon to disperse anti-government protesters in several Turkish cities overnight Monday, as demonstrations against the Islamic-rooted cabinet simmered across the country, media reported.

In Istanbul's Kadikoy district, which has become the focal point of the demonstrations, hundreds of protesters set up barricades, which they then set on fire, according to NTV television.

Turkish police used water cannon and tear gas late Thursday to break up fresh anti-government protests in Istanbul, amid anger over the death of a demonstrator earlier in the week.

Officers faced 2,000-3,000 angry protesters on a second consecutive day of demonstrations in the Kadikoy district, an opposition stronghold.

Police used water canon and tear gas overnight Wednesday in a bid to break up fresh anti-government protests across Turkey, media said.

Thousands of people angry over the death of a 22-year-old demonstrator in southern Turkey on Monday clashed with police in Istanbul, the capital Ankara, the western city of Izmir as well as in the southern cities of Mersin and Atakya.

A 22-year-old man was killed in southern Turkey after fresh protests over a teenager left in a coma during anti-government demonstrations in June, a local news agency reported Tuesday.

The man died in hospital after being hit in the head by a tear gas canister during clashes between police and protesters in the southeastern city of Antakya near the Syrian border, said the Dogan news agency.

The Turkish lira steadied against the dollar and shares firmed in early trading on Thursday, as analysts took the view that U.S. monetary authorities would not tighten their policy immediately.

One factor driving this sentiment was tension over the situation in Syria.

Thousands of supporters of Egypt's ousted leader Mohammed Morsi took to the streets in Turkey on Saturday to denounce "massacres" of his loyalists.

Some 4,000 people gathered at a mosque in Istanbul shouting "Down with (army chief Abdel Fattah) al-Sisi" and "Morsi in power!" an Agence France Presse photographer reported.