Protesters on Taksim Square

A large crowd of mainly young men has gathered for a protest on Taksim Square watched by spectators assembled on rooftops and walls. In the centre of the image, a box waggon has been seized by protesters and police officers. A boy is about to climb onto the engine bonnet. An officer is holding him back. On the lower margin, a mounted police officer with a drawn sabre glances in the direction of İstiklal Caddesi.The picture was taken during the so-called ‘Wagon-Lits incident’ incident (vagon-li olayı) on 25 February 1933. This first large-scale student protest of the 1930s was sparked when newspapers reported that an employee called Naci Bey had been fined and dismissed from work for speaking Turkish (and not French) on the telephone during business hours