ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey's president has maintained that many in the U.S. and Europe are calling U.S. President-elect Donald Trump a "dictator" because he wasn't their favored candidate.

Addressing a meeting of the Organization for Islamic Cooperation on Wednesday, Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused anti-Trump protesters in Western nations of not respecting democracy or the result of the U.S. election.

Erdogan said: "In America they started calling Trump a dictator. In various countries of the Europe they spilled into the streets and started saying 'dictator.' Why aren't you respecting the results of the ballot box?"

The Turkish president also suggested that any leader that doesn't serve the West's interests is denounced as a despot.

He said: "Are they calling someone a dictator? Then you should think the opposite. That person is good."