by John Zangas

Turkish activist Yurter Özcan stood motionless with supporters in front of the Turkish embassy in Washington, DC on Tuesday evening for four hours–from 8pm until midnight. Their “Standing Man” protest, known in Turkish as “DuranAdam,” followed the example of Erdem Gunduz, who stood for more than five hours in Istanbul’s Taksim Square the day before.

Gunduz was joined by hundreds of other Turks who assembled on the Square in spite of massive tear gassing by police over the weekend. They faced a portrait of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the Republic of Turkey as a secular state. Protestors continue to defy the Prime Minister’s three-week crackdown on people across Turkey.

“Standing Man” is a throwback to “Tank Man,” who famously stood in front of a column of tanks in Tiananmen Square during the Chinese uprising of 1989. Since Gunduz’s silent protest, hundreds of Turks have taken up his tactic and stood motionless in public spaces, including Özcan and his comrades at the Turkish Embassy in Washington.