Turkish police detained 18 people on Wednesday evening in İstanbul’s central Taksim Square during a silent “standing man” protest marking the anniversary of the 2013 Gezi Park demonstrations, a landmark event in Turkey’s recent history, Turkish Minute reported.
The protest commemorated the 12th anniversary of the Gezi Park movement, a nationwide wave of demonstrations in May and June 2013 in which millions took to the streets to denounce what they viewed as then-prime minister and current president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s increasingly authoritarian leadership. The unrest was initially sparked by opposition to the ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) plan to demolish Gezi Park in Taksim Square.
What began as a small environmental sit-in escalated into mass anti-government protests that were violently suppressed by police. Eleven demonstrators were killed, and thousands were injured. Erdoğan later labeled the protests a “coup attempt.”
The “standing man” protest first gained attention during the 2013 protests, when performance artist Erdem Gündüz stood silently for nearly eight hours facing the Atatürk Cultural Center in Taksim Square. His silent protest became a symbol of peaceful resistance and was emulated in cities across Turkey.
On Wednesday demonstrators stood silently in the square without banners or chanting. According to ANKA, police took them into custody about 10 minutes after the protest began. The detainees were accused of violating Law No. 2911 on Meetings and Demonstrations and were taken to the İstanbul Police Department for questioning.
Kerim Bütün, a representative of the Avukatın Sesi İnisiyatifi (Voice of the Lawyer Initiative), a civil society group advocating for legal rights and freedoms in Turkey, said the demonstration was organized by activists who have been holding nightly vigils in the Saraçhane neighborhood since May 19, marked as Youth and Sports Day, as part of protests held in the area since March 19.
March 19 refers to the date when İstanbul’s opposition mayor, Ekrem İmamoğlu, was detained, which sparked widespread protests unseen in Turkey since the Gezi Park protests of 2013. He was put in pretrial detention on corruption charges on March 23, widely seen as politically motivated. İmamoğlu, the most powerful political rival of President Erdoğan, was declared his party’s presidential candidate on the day of his arrest following a nationwide primary.
Bütün criticized the detentions, stating that the swift police action, despite the peaceful nature of the protest, reflected the government’s intolerance toward public gatherings in Taksim Square and Gezi Park, which continue to serve as symbolic sites of dissent.
“In a democratic country, authorities cannot dictate where people are allowed to stand or walk,” Bütün said, vowing that his group would continue defending the protesters’ rights.
In a statement shared on X on Wednesday, Özgür Özel, leader of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), described the Gezi protests as “the most peaceful and most widely participated in civil movement in our history.”
He commemorated those killed during the demonstrations and called for the immediate release of individuals imprisoned in connection with the movement, including human rights lawyer and former Workers Party of Turkey (TİP) lawmaker Can Atalay, businessman and philanthropist Osman Kavala, journalist and film producer Çiğdem Mater, city planner Tayfun Kahraman and filmmaker Mine Özerden.
