Turkish Police Back Off, Protests Become Peaceful; Massive Floods Engulf Central Europe
BECKY ANDERSON, HOST: Live from Istanbul, I'm Becky Anderson where thousands of protesters refuse to go home despite an apology from the deputy prime minister. Plus, some waters rise, Germany sends in troops to help secure devastated towns. And marking a royal milestone, Queen Elizabeth celebrates 60 years since her coronation.</s>ANNOUNCER: Welcome to a special edition of Connect the World. The Turkish government says, and I quote, it has learned its lesson, offering an apology of sorts after days of widespread protests. Now, it wasn't enough to keep demonstrators off the streets today. Thousands are gathered once again in Istanbul, in Taksim Square below me and in other cities across the country their ranks boosted by trade unions on strike in solidarity. But unlike previous days, we haven't seen any violent clashes, at least not here in Istanbul, with security forces. A police crackdown on peaceful protesters last Friday, of course, triggered the mass outrage. Well, today, Turkey's Deputy Prime Minister offered a qualified apology.</s>BULENT ARINC, TURKISH DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER (through translator): The excessive use of force against those who acted with environmental consciousness was wrong and unjust. And I apologize for that to these citizens. But I don't think we owe an apology to those who caused destruction on the streets and who interfered with people's freedoms.</s>ANDERSON: Well, as you would imagine, we are covering this from all angles for you tonight. Nick Paton Walsh is live in the capital Ankara. And with me here in Istanbul is Ivan Watson. And Ivan, let's start with you. You've just come up from Taksim Square. There are thousands of people out on the square tonight. What's the mood?</s>IVAN WATSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's really festive. I mean, I've never seen a scene like this really in Istanbul before where the authorities are typically rather suspicious of uncontrolled gatherings of people. There are also some really strange little small political parties. There are anarchists and leftist groups. But then you also have Kamalists. They support the secular founder of Turkey. And Kurdish nationalists all mixed up in a lot of unaffiliated people. And they just seem to be having a good time, and many of them are wearing what has become the unofficial symbol of this protest movement, the surgical mask, or gas mask, that has been a kind of protection against that ubiquitous tear gas which has been used so much by the Turkish police. These protests, of course, have widened from what was a demonstration after a peaceful sit-in protest where we know on Friday protesters were tear gassed. To and extension whereby you see signs and people shouting, "resign Tayyip" the prime minister here. We haven't seen his supporters on the streets, but I know that you've been to an area very close to here where there are many, many people who are vocal about the prime minister.</s>ANDERSON: Absolutely. And it's important to keep in mind that while we've seen these very dramatic scenes of people out in the streets and clashing with police, the Turkish prime minister is democratically elected. He won 50 percent of the vote in 2011. And he has been reminding the population in Turkey about this quote, unquote silent majority. So we went to Kasimpasha (ph), it's, I don't know, two kilometers as the crow flies from here. It's his home neighborhood. And there the people say Erdogan is still our man. And these demonstrators they are a minority. They don't count. We don't take them seriously. And in fact many of them insult them and say these guys have been burning cars and committing acts of vandalism and spray painting and breaking business shop windows and things like that. They're trouble makers.</s>ANDERSON: Does the deputy prime minister speak for the prime minister, do you think? We haven't heard from Erdogan since he left Turkey on Monday for a trip to North Africa. We've heard a sort of conciliatory tone from the deputy prime minister, and indeed from the president. Do you sense a schism at the top of this government?</s>WATSON: Schism, that may be too strong a word perhaps. Good cop, bad cop. And Erdogan grew to power because he's such a tough guy from that neighborhood, Kasimpasha (ph), who one resident compared to Texas, all right. So, he's the tough talking street guy. But there are other men in his party, like deputy prime minister who has a much softer tough. And I think they recognize that's what you need right now to calm the tension on the streets and bring an end to this very bizarre cycle of violence that I've never seen in 10 years in Turkey.</s>ANDERSON: You certainly describe Taksim Square at least tonight as calm, though.</s>WATSON: Absolutely. And that has been one big accomplishment. By pulling the riot police out -- and mind you, they would gas any gathering of more than 50 people here on Friday and Saturday -- by pulling that away, that has given a space to people to just, I don't know, exercise, talk about whatever issue is on their mind. And you have, again, all sort of different kinds of people there. It really is almost a bizarre kind of alternative festival right now.</s>ANDERSON: All right. Thank you for that for the time being. We're going to hear from Ivan a little later in the show. Let's get to Ankara where things haven't been perhaps as calm as they have here in Istanbul. Nick Paton Walsh is standing by -- Nick.</s>NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Becky, we've seen most -- Ivan described a change in police tactics today, which really results in calm from much of the day. No tear gas used at all. Many of the protesters incredibly young, 15, 16-year-old girls at some stage often being talked to by police, told not to go any further, and an agreement that you don't throw rocks, we won't tear gas you back. As the day drew by, some groups tried to move into the square behind me here, the central square here in Ankara, blocked by riot police. And as the evening progressed on, we've now seen a key group of thousands down the side road here, blocked off by four or five police armored vehicles with water cannons and armored -- riot police to calm. Not wearing their gas masks or helmet. A different atmosphere. Occasionally chanting or flare up demanding that the prime minister resign, the occasion drum will bang. And they aren't there in significant number, but the atmosphere has changed. Because there's not tear gas, there isn't this desire for protesters necessarily fight back when they see that gas often cause injuries amongst their crowd. So that change so far this evening. But as the rain dissipates and the storm moves back, we just don't quite know how it will resolve itself in the street behind me, Becky.</s>ANDERSON: All right. Thank you very much indeed for that. Nick Paton Walsh is in Ankara for you this evening. Let's get some perspective on what has been a quite unprecedented period over the past week here in Turkey. And as I say, not just in Istanbul, not just in Ankara, but in some 67 provinces around the country. I'm joined now by Ersin Kalaycioglu. I think I'm pronouncing your name. There you go, nearly correctly, sir. Come in and join me -- come in and join me tonight. Professor of political sciences at Sabanci University. Fairly peaceful in Istanbul tonight. Nick Paton Walsh reporting fairly peaceful on the streets, at least, of Ankara. We're seeing Twitter feeds, though, that suggest there are protests in many, many other cities across the country. How do you read things here at present?</s>ERSIN KALAYCIOGLU, PROFESSOR OF POLITICAL SCIENCES, SABANCI UNIVERSITY: Well, it's unprecedented. We've never had anything of the sort. Coming here, I had to go around barricades of many sorts. And that's a first, because this is the downtown assemble, I've never seen this place so quiet before. And so much color from the rest of the country. But what you observe here is not any particular group, segment, sector or community, it's just across the board all sorts of people, all ages, all walks of life. And this is a first.</s>ANDERSON: Are you surprised the prime minister left the country on Monday?</s>KALAYCIOGLU: I'm not, but to a certain extent probably something that has been considered earlier on that this will give a breathing space for the government, because he has not taken any step back so far. And that's one of the main reasons why we are still having so many people out here in a jubiliant form, but they're not -- they're apprehensive about it.</s>ANDERSON: Nothing from Erdogan, but qualify the apology from the deputy prime minister today.</s>KALAYCIOGLU: But do they count? That's the problem.</s>ANDERSON: Do they?</s>KALAYCIOGLU: In the minds of these people, no. There is a huge trust problem. He has accumulated so much power just underneath his feet, he has become sort of something like an elected king in Turkey.</s>ANDERSON: This isn't any longer a functioning democracy, is that what you're telling me.</s>KALAYCIOGLU: Not that far, but Turkey has been democratizing. We've been categorized as a hybrid regime, not necessarily a democracy. And this is not necessarily helping us to democratize.</s>ANDERSON: People are drawing analogies here to the Arab Spring across North Africa and other countries. When you hear Tayyip resign, being shouted by people on the streets and shoulder to shoulder against fascism, when you hear one of the biggest unions come out today calling for the end of the fascism of Erdogan's governing party, for our viewers purposes, are we looking at a new spring, a new Arab spring here?</s>KALAYCIOGLU: Not to that extent, but the demands here of course for more freedom of expression on the one hand, and also to be taken seriously. These people want to be treated as stakeholders.</s>ANDERSON: How will that happen, though? Will anyone in any way concede to those...</s>KALAYCIOGLU: So far there's no indication that he personally took the message. He's been asking today from Morocco what the message happens to be. The message is that these people do not want to be treated as enemies, but as stakeholders and taken seriously. And that their demands be heard and that they don't want to be repressed by the police or anybody else for that matter and they just want to be taken as, you know, citizens of this country seriously.</s>ANDERSON: So the qualified apology you don't think will work?</s>KALAYCIOGLU: Qualified apology by itself, if it had come from Erdogan himself might have worked a little bit, but they want more than that, they want tangible results such as that he will negotiate turning this little park into a former barrack (ph) of some sort.</s>ANDERSON: And they're asking for more than that, we're talking about freedom of speech, we're talking about various other things which we will discuss as we move through this hour for the time being. Sir, thank you very much indeed for joining us. Well, live from Istanbul, we want to hear from you. In the next 40 minutes or so here on Connect the World, do join the conversation. Tweet me @BeckyCNN. That's @BeckyCNN. You're thoughts, wherever you are watching in the world. Your thoughts this evening, @BeckyCNN, or head to Facebook to join the conversation -- Facebook.com/CNNconnect. We're live in Istanbul in Turkey for you here on Connect the World on CNN this evening. Still to come on this special edition, from Istanbul, since Turkey's government opposed dissent? We'll ask one of the leaders of the ruling party's youth division. And Olympic sprinter Oscar Pistorius makes a brief appearance in court as the judge lashes out at the media. Robyn Curnow will have the very latest for you. And in the worst floods seen in over the decade, the latest on the rising waters across Central Europe. All that and much more when the show continues.