'Yellow vest protests show Europe has failed on democracy, human rights, and freedom'

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Saturday that Turkey is against the "chaos" caused by yellow vest protestors and the use of “disproportionate force” against them.

“We’re concerned as we follow the events unfolding on European streets," he added.

“The footage that emerged shows that Europe’s democracy, human rights and freedom lessons are only confined to classrooms,” said Erdoğan as he warned that French streets should not witness the “oppression that began in the summer of 1789,” in reference to the French Revolution that same year.

“Europe’s walls of security and welfare are not being shaken by migrants or Muslims, but by Europe’s own citizens,” he added.

French riot police fired tear gas and clashed with "yellow vest" protesters in central Paris on Saturday during the latest in a wave of demonstrations against the high cost of living that have shaken President Emmanuel Macron's authority.

Authorities said 575 people had been searched and briefly arrested and 361 people of them remained in custody after police found potential weapons such as hammers, baseball bats and metal petanque balls on them.

Hundreds of protesters were milling around the Arc de Triomphe monument, which was defaced with anti-Macron graffiti last Saturday, when rioters also torched dozens of cars and looted shops in the worst rioting in Paris since May 1968.

The protests, named after the high-visibility safety jackets French motorists have to keep in their cars, erupted in November over the squeeze on household budgets caused by fuel taxes.

The French protests have inspired similar demonstrations in other European nations, notably in Belgium.