Police intervene at student demonstration on Taksim 1933

A large crowd of mainly young men is gathered on Taksim Square. Entering from the lower right corner, mounted police with drawn sabres are clearing the crowd, ousting people carrying banners in the direction of İstiklal Caddesi. A car parked in the middle of the square close to the Republic Monument is parially seen on the left margin. In the background, a corner of Taksim stadı and a series of billboards frame the picture.The picture was taken during the so-called ‘Wagon-Lits 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