ISTANBUL: Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has reportedly labelled Istanbul’s Taksim Square, which was rocked by deadly anti-government protests last year, “as the ugliest square in the world”.
“If anyone tells me that Taksim is a perfect square, then I would tell him that it is the ugliest square in the world,” Davutoglu told reporters.
“I have seen the squares in Venice and Isfahan,” he said, referring to St Mark’s Square and the immense Naqsh-e Jahan Square in the historic Iranian city.
“After seeing them, you feel yourself sucked into a vacuum on Taksim Square,” he was quoted as saying by Milliyet newspaper yesterday.
A small campaign to save Istanbul’s Gezi Park, adjacent to Taksim, in May-June 2013 eventually drew an estimated three million protesters in an outpouring of anger at the perceived authoritarian tendencies of the Islamist-rooted government. Eight people died and thousands were injured in the ensuing violence as police launched a brutal crackdown, frequently employing tear gas and water cannon. The government shuts down both the Gezi Park and Taksim Square at the slightest whiff of public dissent.
The square has traditionally been a focus of political protest and in 1977, 34 people killed during a May Day protest when unknown gunmen fired on a peaceful crowd.
Today however, many Istanbul residents prefer to give the square a wide berth, finding it a noisy concrete wasteland with little attraction or character. AFP
