My Bookshelf

Sunday, 30 June 2013

Taksim Square Book Club


We've all been aware of the protests and violence across Turkey over the past few weeks but, once again, books have shown their amazing power to make us all stop and think.

Days after the authorities evicted all protesters from Taksim Square in Istanbul, performance artist 
Erdem Gunduz, the 'Standing Man' took silently to the Square. He stood there for eight hours in silence, facing a statue of Kemal Ataturk - the first President of Turkey - until the police stepped in.

Although the police did appear, Gunduz's symbolic stand inspired thousands of people over the next few days to follow his lead, many of whom stood with their books and read.

Although public reading was a feature of the protests in Turkey beforehand, several images have since emerged of readers in Taksim Square that subsequently lead to the coining of the Taksim Square Book Club, a moving image of silent contemplation while violence continues to erupt across the country.

George Henton of Aljazeera English took these photos from Taksim Square and you can see more
here, as well as his original article.

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