Taksim Square has been closed to protests, but not pedestrians

Hundreds of young Turks staged “standing man” protests against the Government today after the arrest of a performance artist who stood still for eight hours in Istanbul’s Taksim Square.

Erdem Gündüz, a choreographer, began his silent vigil at 6pm yesterday, facing the Ataturk Cultural Centre which was draped in Turkish flags and a portrait of Turkey’s founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.

By 2am, when the police moved in, about 300 people had joined him. Ten people, who refused to be moved on by police, were detained.

The square has been sealed off from mass protests since police cleared it over the weekend, but has not been closed for pedestrians.

Gündüz’s protest quickly went viral under the Twitter hashtag #duranadam — Turkish for “standing man” — and