Erdem Gündüz

"[1] He became internationally known as "The Standing Man" in June 2013 when he stood quietly in Istanbul's Taksim Square as a protest against the conservative government of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Gündüz is interested in the use of "improvisation, ritual, and public action as tools for investigating political realities and social movement.

In 2007, as a participant in an exchange program, he took a course at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in the U.S. A year later, he attended a course in “ImPulzTanz” at the Vienna International Dance Festival.

[3] Der Spiegel reported in 2013 that a couple of years earlier Gündüz had "protested the headscarf ban at Turkish universities."

"[1] Peaceful protests began to take place in Istanbul on 28 May 2013 over government plans to eliminate Gezi Park, one of the city's few green areas, and to begin development on the site.

Peaceful demonstrators were attacked by police with tear gas and batons, leading to national protests by people who were more concerned about the government's authoritarian response than about Gezi Park.

"[7] At around 6 p.m. on 17 June, Gündüz drove to Taksim Square, near Gezi Park, which had been sealed off owing to the widespread anti-government protests.

"[11][9] According to NPR, many of the people on the square "didn't take him very seriously" at first, "with some even mockingly posing for photos with him"; at one juncture, "police and others tried prodding a response out of him."

"[12] "For this new protest to work," reported one source, "Gündüz's friends positioned themselves outside the square in a bid to prevent well-wishers trying to approach him.

One of them, a young woman named Asma, explained, 'We want to protect him from any provocation...He has to be alone in the middle of the square, otherwise the police will use the pretext of a gathering to clear everyone away.'"

[6] As news of Gündüz's action spread, other opponents of the Turkish government began to engage in similar protests around the country.

In the words of Zeynep Tufekci, a sociologist and social-media commentator, the "standing man" concept "spread throughout Istanbul and other cities in several hours.

"[8] Three men stood at a spot in Istanbul, north of Taksim Square, where a Turkish-Armenian journalist, Hrant Dink, had been shot to death in 2007.

Also, a group of men and women stood facing a former hotel in the city of Sivas where 37 people, mostly members of the Alevi minority, died in a 1993 fire started during an Islamist protest against the presence at a meeting there of a translator of Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses.

[9] In Hatay Province on the Syrian border, "a man stood with his hands in his pockets beside a makeshift shrine for Abdullah Comert, who was killed during clashes there between police and protesters.

[9] Gündüz, according to the New York Daily News, "sought to play down his importance in demonstrations despite the huge number of people who followed his lead.

"[6] According to Der Spiegel, Gündüz "has no party affiliation, nor does he oppose Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government or support the opposition.

"[3] Commentators pointed out that Gündüz's peaceful, solitary protest formed a sharp contrast with the recent violent clashes in which approximately 5,000 people had been injured and at least four had died.

Seymour described his action as "a silent, stubborn and dignified protest against the brutality of the police response to demonstrators, which had culminated in a sinister weekend assault whose targets included medics and staff who treated the wounded.

[17] Although he is aware of photographs of himself "with a bull's-eye on them," Gündüz "is not afraid," saying that even if Erdogan gives in to protesters, "a new government leader will come in and do similar things."