Contested Republican Monument during student demonstration 1933

Young male demonstrators have climbed the Republic Monument on Taksim Square and are swinging banners. Around them on the square, more protesters are shouting and waving banners and flags. From the left, mounted police officers enter the frame, brandishing sabres.The atmosphere on the picture is very agitated. It 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