Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday vowed to continue the fragile peace process between the government and the country's Kurdish minority which looked threatened by a weekend of rallies sparked by the death of a young protester.

"This problem didn't start yesterday and it will need a lot of work and patience," he said at a weekly meeting of his deputies from the Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP).

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan praised Monday police "heroism" in handling several weeks of unrest that threw up the biggest challenge yet to his government after more than a decade in power.

"Our police successfully passed a very important, very challenging democracy test," Erdogan said at a graduation ceremony at the police academy in the capital Ankara.

Turkish authorities arrested 23 more people on Saturday over their alleged role in this month's anti-government protests, accusing them of acting on behalf of a far-left "terrorist" group, a news report said.

A court in the capital accused them of helping to organize the protests and engaging in violence in the name of the Communist Marxist-Leninist Party (MLKP), CNN-Turk said on its website.

Riot police on Wednesday clashed briefly with groups of anti-government protesters in two Turkish cities, but there was no fresh unrest in Istanbul where demonstrators switched to silent protests after a heavy crackdown.

A day after Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan claimed victory over the mass demos that have defied his authority for nearly three weeks, several dozen protesters held a quiet vigil on Istanbul's Taksim Square, standing still and silent in the midday heat.

Dozens of Syrians gathered in the capital Damascus on Tuesday for a rare demonstration in support of Turkish protests against the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

"Erdogan leave," the demonstrators chanted, waving Syrian flags and pictures of President Bashar Assad in front of the Turkish embassy in Damascus.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday claimed victory over anti-government protesters after a heavy crackdown, as police raided homes and arrested dozens of demonstrators in a bid to stamp out nearly three weeks of unrest.

After a weekend of clashes sparked by the eviction of protesters from Istanbul's Gezi Park, the focal point of the protests, demonstrators have struggled to regroup and police have since fought only sporadic battles with smaller groups of demonstrators across the country.

Senior leaders of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas will meet on Tuesday in Ankara with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a diplomatic source told Agence France Presse.

The group's exiled leader Khaled Meshaal, along with Gaza's prime minister Ismail Haniya, will discuss Erdogan's planned visit to the Gaza Strip as well as the situation in Syria, the source said on condition of anonymity.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Monday that she was shocked by Turkey's violent crackdown on protests in major cities, saying it "was much too harsh".

"There were horrible images in which one could see that the approach was much too harsh in my view," Merkel told commercial broadcaster RTL in reaction to news coverage of riot police breaking up demonstrations in Istanbul and the capital Ankara.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday told a crowd of more than 100,000 supporters it was his "duty" to order a crackdown on an Istanbul protest park, as police and anti-government demonstrators faced off in fresh clashes.

A day after riot police dislodged thousands of protesters occupying Gezi Park, officers in the area were still firing tear gas and jets of water at pockets of protesters determined to regroup.

Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday agreed to halt plans to redevelop an Istanbul park at the center of two weeks of mass anti-government unrest, in a move protesters welcomed as "positive."

It marked the first easing of tensions in the standoff, which has presented the Islamist-rooted government with the biggest challenge of its decade-long rule and earned it criticism from the West.