Turkish politicians seek to defuse tensions with protesters An anti-government protester holds a Turkish flag featuring a portrait of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founder of modern Turkey, during a demonstration in Ankara. Senior Turkish politicians sought to defuse tensions with protesters on Tuesday but there was no sign of an end to the dispute that has shaken the government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the prime minister. Bulent Arinc, Mr Erdogan's deputy, apologised for police use of tear gas against peaceful protesters, one of the recent events that transformed a small-scale environmental demonstration into almost a week of unrest. The excessive use of force was "wrong and unjust," said Mr Arinc, who is standing in for Mr Erdogan while the prime minister tours north Africa. This was markedly more emollient language than that previously used by Mr Erdogan, who has depicted the demonstrators as looters and extremists manipulated by his political enemies. An official tweet summarising Mr Arinc's stance said: "We have been monitoring the non-violent demonstrations with respect." Mr Arinc made his comments after a meeting with Abdullah Gul, Turkey's president, who has sought to strike a less confrontational tone and who later met one of the opposition MPs at the heart of the original protest over Gezi Park. Mr Arinc said that he, too, would meet some of the initial protesters against the development of the park in central Istanbul. But the deputy prime minister added there was no need to apologise "to those who have caused damage in the streets and tried to prevent people's freedom." As evening came the protesters made their way back to Taksim, the central Istanbul square at the heart of the dispute, where the government has yet to re-establish a police presence after withdrawing forces on Saturday after hours of clashes. Compared with previous days the police appeared to be adopting a lower profile in Istanbul, although there were clashes in other parts of the country. These followed the death on Monday night of a 22-year-old protester, who was shot and killed at a rally in the southern town of Antakya near the Syrian border, according to the provincial governor's office. It was the second such death since the mass demonstrations erupted on Friday. "What we have seen today is not going to be sufficient," said Sinan Ulgen, at the Carnegie Europe think-tank. Some people are going to be satisfied with what they heard from Bulent Arinc, but others are not going to leave these protests before they hear from Erdogan. I don't think this is going to end before Erdogan says the same thing. Late on Tuesday, demonstrators held celebrations in Taksim Square in a calm atmosphere, but clashes with police and the use of tear gas were reported in other parts of the country. As the violence ebbed, Turkey's markets recovered much of the ground they had lost the day before, which saw the main stock market fall more than 10 per cent, its biggest decline in a decade. Borsa Istanbul rose 5 per cent on Tuesday, with the lira edging up against the dollar. Mehmet Simsek, Turkey's finance minister, has become one of the more vociferous voices against the protests. "This mischief-making naturally affects financial markets," he wrote on Twitter on Tuesday. "[The protesters"] aim is to make our country weaker but the macro fundamentals are solid." Meanwhile, the largest union started a two-day strike in support of the protests. Kesk, the public sector workers" union, which has 240,000 members, had announced its plans to strike against new civil service rules two weeks ago but said it was also calling for a democratic Turkey to support the Gezi Park movement.