ISTANBUL/ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey's deputy prime minister apologised on Tuesday for "excessive violence" by police in an effort to defuse days of unrest, comments which contrasted sharply with Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's defiant dismissal of the protesters.
With Erdogan abroad and strikes and demonstrations still rumbling on after five days, Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc sought to assuage some of the anger at the government's initial hardline response to what began as a sit-in against plans to build on an Istanbul park.