Istanbul's 'Standing Man' adds momentum to Turkey's protest

ISTANBUL // After two weeks of running street battles, blaring police sirens and chanting demonstrators, a still and silent protester in Istanbul's Taksim Square has posed a new challenge to Turkey's government.
The "Standing Man", as he has become known, appeared in the square late on Monday and stood motionless for eight hours, hands in his pockets, staring straight ahead, saying nothing. Policemen guarding the square searched his clothes and his bag for possible bombs, but still he did not move.
His silent protest against police action on the square gave new inspiration to a nationwide protest movement that lost momentum after police stormed a camp of occupiers in Gezi Park next to Taksim Square last Saturday.
As the news spread on the internet and social media, other "Standing Men" appeared across the country.
"I did not expect this," Erdem Gunduz, the original Standing Man, told The National yesterday. The 34-year-old dancer said he was happy to see that his "performance", as he called it, created such a reaction.
"I will not do it again, for me that's it," he said. But he said he was happy if others continued. A Facebook group called "Standing Man" called on Turks to stage the silent protest on the streets for five minutes every evening at 8pm.
Other activists who took part in the Gezi Park protest vowed yesterday they would continue to confront the government despite the arrest of several hundred demonstrators by police since the weekend.
In Taksim Square on Monday, the silent man was joined by others in the square even though it had been declared a no-go area for gatherings. Two hours after midnight, police moved to disperse the silent and still crowd that had grown to several hundred people. Ten were arrested, but the Standing Man had left the square by then.
According to news reports, police arrested five standing protesters in Taksim Square arround midday yesterday, but by evening hundreds more men and women exercising the silent protest arrived. No new arrests were reported.
Muammer Guler, the interior minister, said police would not intervene as long as the "Standing Man" protests did not disturb public order.
Mr Gunduz staged his protest almost three weeks after a police operation to end a sit-in by environmentalist in Gezi Park on May 31 triggered nationwide demonstarations that grew into the biggest challenge for Turkey's prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, since he came to power 10 years ago.
"This action is a silent cry against fascism," Mr Gunduz said on Twitter. "And it is a cry that is getting louder by the minute."
Deprived of its base in Gezi Park since Saturday, the movement is struggling to find a new focus and a new structure. The original demand, to stop a construction project in the park, has been accepted by the government.
Yesterday, Abdullah Gul, the president, assured protesters that "the projects have been put on ice".
Ongun Yucel, a spokesman for Taksim Solidarity, an umbrella group that represents many Gezi Park protesters, said other demands, such as a call on the government to sack police officers accused of using disproportionate force, were still valid.
"Nothing is over. The protest will go on, but it will have other forms," he told The National. Mr Yucel said protesters would not form a political party. Discussions about whether the movement should give itself structured organisational framework were continuing.
Ahmet, a university lecturer and a supporter of the protest movement who asked that his last name be withheld, also said protests would continue. Istanbul could see other parks being occupied by demonstrators, he said.
Mr Erdogan yesterday issued another warning to protesters, saying that security forces would show no restraint in dealing with violent dissent from now on. The protests had been stoked by "traitors at home and collaborators abroad", Mr Erdogan said in a televised speech.
Mr Guler, the interior minister, said anti-terror police in Istanbul and Ankara had searched dozens of apartments and work places yesterday in raids directed against a small left-wing party, the Socialist Party of the Oppressed (ESP), and a leftist militant group, the Marxist Leninist Communist Party (MLKP), seen by ankara as a terrorist organisation.
Both groups are accused of involvement in the Gezi Park protests. The ESP had a booth in the occupied park before the police cleared the protest camp.
Ufuk Ozkap, an official at the Istanbul Bar Association, told Turkish media on Monday that police arrested 441 people in Istanbul and another 56 people in Ankara in connection with the protests last weekend. It remained unclear how many of them were still in police custody.
In Ankara, authorities said yesterday that a total of 944 people had been arrested since the start of the unrest.
tseibert@thenational.ae
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