Taksim's No Tahrir Square

Another year, another country, another square: After Wenceslas in Prague, Independence in Kiev, Azadi in Tehran, Red in Moscow and Tahrir in Cairo, there’s now Taksim in Istanbul. Each square reaches the world through totemic photographic images. Here, it is that young woman in a red dress – Ceyda Sungur, a young academic at Istanbul’s technical university – being sprayed with tear gas at close quarters by a riot policeman. A young, modern, urban, probably secular young woman faces the armed, helmeted, faceless man. He represents the forces of reaction, authoritarianism and domination, whether in the service of the ayatollahs, Vladimir Putin or this would-be sultan, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.