Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared a “victory” for democracy and his ruling party today as police continued to attack protesters, but in smaller numbers than had showed up in recent weeks.

It doesn’t seem as though the rallies are over, and the resentment is likely to last years, but Erdogan wasted no time in pushing his advantage, as police raided the homes of opposition figures believed to be involved in demonstrations against his rule.

Erdogan also promised to dramatically expand police powers in Turkey, saying that riot police had acted with “restraint” in beating and gassing the protesters across the nation and it was clear that they needed more leeway in crushing future rallies.

Erdogan insisted that police have a “natural right” to fire tear gas into crowds, and that he is working on new legislation to heavily regulate the use of Twitter in the future, insisting that dissent of Twitter was a big part of the uprising.