A heavy-handed police crackdown on Turkish protesters marking the one year anniversary of deadly anti-government demonstrations earned Ankara Sunday strong rebuke from the Council of Europe.

"I condemn the excessive use of force by the Turkish police against demonstrators and journalists," Nils Muiznieks, the Council of Europe commissioner for human rights, said in a statement sent to Agence France Presse.

Turkey's combative prime minister warned protesters that police would do "whatever is necessary" to clamp down on demonstrations Saturday in Istanbul's Taksim Square to mark the anniversary of last year's turmoil.

As police deployed some 25,000 officers as well as dozens of water cannon trucks and armored vehicles to prevent would-be demonstrators from reaching the square, Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed tough anti-protest measures.

Mustafa Sarisuluk didn't even recognize his brother as he watched his limp body being carried to an ambulance after being shot in the head during protests in Ankara last year.

"Thousands were at the downtown Kizilay square in Ankara, under massive plumes of tear gas fired by the police billowing into the air. I knew Ethem was there. So was I," Mustafa, 33, told AFP, recalling the anti-government demonstrations that swept the country a year ago.

Thousands of people from Turkey's minority Alevi community on Sunday held protests over the deaths of two people during a police crackdown on demonstrators earlier in the week.

Protestors flocked to rallies in Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir to call for an end to discrimination after two men were caught up in clashes between police and protesters in a predominantly Alevi district on Thursday and killed.

Turkish Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan roused cheering supporters Saturday at a speech in Germany, the country with the most overseas Turks, shrugging off street protests there labeling him a "dictator".

Erdogan is expected to run for Turkey's presidency in August, and Germany -- with a Turkish community of three million, half of them eligible voters -- would be a strong constituency for the controversial leader.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's planned pre-election address in Germany Saturday has sparked widespread criticism in the wake of the country's mine disaster and concern over opponents' protest calls.

Amid heightened anger within Turkey over his response to last week's tragedy in which more than 300 died, Erdogan is set for a long-scheduled appearance before supporters in the western city of Cologne.

Turkish rescue workers were on Saturday battling fires to reach the last two coal miners trapped by the country's worst-ever industrial disaster that has killed 301 workers and led to a surge of anger over the government response.

Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said two miners were still thought to be in the collapsed mine, based on information from families, while 485 have either escaped or been rescued since Tuesday's explosion in the western town of Soma.

Turkey's prime minister shouted an anti-Israel slur as he was mobbed by angry protesters at the site of a deadly mine blast this week, local media reported Friday.

"Why are you running away, Israeli spawn?" Recep Tayyip Erdogan is heard yelling at a protester in video footage circulated by the opposition Sozcu newspaper, using an expression considered a curse in Turkish.

The operator of the Turkish mine where an explosion killed at least 284 workers denied charges of negligence on Friday, as the government faced a worsening political backlash from the country's deadliest industrial accident ever.

With the government warning that the toll from the blast in the western town of Soma would likely top 300, Turkey's prime minister faced fresh criticism after video emerged of him apparently shouting an anti-Israel slur at angry protesters during a visit Wednesday to the disaster site.

Anger was growing across Turkey on Wednesday as hopes faded for scores of workers trapped in a collapsed mine and the death toll hit 245, edging it closer to becoming the country's worst-ever industrial disaster.

Thousands of protesters took to the streets in Ankara and Istanbul, accusing the government and mining industry of negligence, as Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan rejected claims of government culpability.