Istanbul:
Thousands of Turkish protestors flooded back onto Istanbul's Taksim Square late on Tuesday in defiance of government calls to end days of protests.
Bellowing, whistling crowds flooded Taksim, AFP reporters saw, after Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc tried to calm protests by saying the government had "learnt its lesson".
A flag-waving crowd of mostly left-wing political activists had gathered in the afternoon and was joined at nightfall by a swarm of football supporters who marched from the stadium of local football club Besiktas.
Turkish pipe music and singing blared over speakers as the crowd clapped and danced in a markedly more festive atmosphere than the tense rallies of the past five days.
In the capital Ankara meanwhile, residents reprised their nightly protest ritual of banging pots and pans, leaning from their windows or marching in the street.
Some waved red and white Turkish flags and drivers honked their horns.
"Tayyip, resign!" they yelled.
Turkey's Islamic-rooted government apologised earlier Tuesday to protestors who were wounded when the clashes erupted last week in the biggest challenge to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan since he took power a decade ago.
Two people have been killed in the clashes, officials and medics say, and rights groups say thousands have been injured while the government puts the figure at around 300.
Arinc called on "responsible citizens" to stop the protests, but the demonstrators on Taksim, the cradle of the protests, defied his message. They repeated their charges that Erdogan was imposing conservative Islamic reforms on the predominantly Muslim but constitutionally secular nation.
Bellowing, whistling crowds flooded Taksim, AFP reporters saw, after Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc tried to calm protests by saying the government had "learnt its lesson".
A flag-waving crowd of mostly left-wing political activists had gathered in the afternoon and was joined at nightfall by a swarm of football supporters who marched from the stadium of local football club Besiktas.
Turkish pipe music and singing blared over speakers as the crowd clapped and danced in a markedly more festive atmosphere than the tense rallies of the past five days.
In the capital Ankara meanwhile, residents reprised their nightly protest ritual of banging pots and pans, leaning from their windows or marching in the street.
Some waved red and white Turkish flags and drivers honked their horns.
"Tayyip, resign!" they yelled.
Turkey's Islamic-rooted government apologised earlier Tuesday to protestors who were wounded when the clashes erupted last week in the biggest challenge to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan since he took power a decade ago.
Two people have been killed in the clashes, officials and medics say, and rights groups say thousands have been injured while the government puts the figure at around 300.
Arinc called on "responsible citizens" to stop the protests, but the demonstrators on Taksim, the cradle of the protests, defied his message. They repeated their charges that Erdogan was imposing conservative Islamic reforms on the predominantly Muslim but constitutionally secular nation.
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