Turks stand still as new form of protest
June 19, 2013, Wednesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
AFTER weeks of sometimes violent confrontation with police, protesters in Turkey have found a more potent form of resistance: standing still.
The trend was launched by performance artist Erdem Gunduz, who stood silently for hours in Istanbul's central Taksim Square on Monday night, in passive defiance of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's violent crackdown on environmental protesters at a park adjacent to Taksim. The square has been sealed off from protesters since police cleared it over the weekend, though pedestrians can still enter.
As Gunduz stood there, others gradually began to join him - and later to replicate his protest in other cities in a wave of imitation driven by social media.
Gunduz apparently made no announcement before he paused in the square and didn't move. He stood with his hands in his pockets, staring at an image of Turkey's founding father Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, whose admiration is rooted in his success in imposing secular values on a largely Muslim nation after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire 90 years ago.
When police arrived an hour later, Turkish news media reported, they searched him, then left. Gunduz stayed put. For hours.
Witnesses began calling him duran adam - "standing man." Some joined him in Taksim, while others began doing the same in other Turkish cities. In Ankara, the capital, a woman stood still at the spot where a protester had been killed.
Early yesterday morning, police intervened and dispersed the crowd around Gunduz, detaining several protesters. It wasn't clear whether Gunduz was among those arrested, though he was free later yesterday. Later, others returned and began silent vigils.
Interior Minister Muammer Guler said authorities wouldn't intervene against any demonstration that doesn't threaten public order.
The trend was launched by performance artist Erdem Gunduz, who stood silently for hours in Istanbul's central Taksim Square on Monday night, in passive defiance of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's violent crackdown on environmental protesters at a park adjacent to Taksim. The square has been sealed off from protesters since police cleared it over the weekend, though pedestrians can still enter.
As Gunduz stood there, others gradually began to join him - and later to replicate his protest in other cities in a wave of imitation driven by social media.
Gunduz apparently made no announcement before he paused in the square and didn't move. He stood with his hands in his pockets, staring at an image of Turkey's founding father Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, whose admiration is rooted in his success in imposing secular values on a largely Muslim nation after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire 90 years ago.
When police arrived an hour later, Turkish news media reported, they searched him, then left. Gunduz stayed put. For hours.
Witnesses began calling him duran adam - "standing man." Some joined him in Taksim, while others began doing the same in other Turkish cities. In Ankara, the capital, a woman stood still at the spot where a protester had been killed.
Early yesterday morning, police intervened and dispersed the crowd around Gunduz, detaining several protesters. It wasn't clear whether Gunduz was among those arrested, though he was free later yesterday. Later, others returned and began silent vigils.
Interior Minister Muammer Guler said authorities wouldn't intervene against any demonstration that doesn't threaten public order.
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