Turkish opera, dance artists join park protests

ROUGH CUT - NO REPORTER NARRATION

Members of Turkey's State Opera and Ballet on Friday (June 7) held a dance protest in Ankara in solidarity with the demonstrators occupying Gezi Park in the capitol Istanbul.

One protester explained to Reuters that dancing on stage was the only way they could express themselves, while an opera singer said the whole of Turkey wanted their rights back.

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan flew back to a Turkey rocked by days of anti-government unrest on Friday and declared before a sea of flag-waving supporters at Istanbul airport: "These protests must end immediately."

Erdogan has pressed many democratic reforms, taming a military that had toppled four governments in four decades, starting entry talks with the European Union, reining in police rights abuses and forging peace talks with Kurdish rebels to end a three-decades-old war that has cost 40,000 lives.