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Flags Symbolic of What?

The Turkish flag is noticeably omnipresent - in shop windows, draped from buildings, stretched across streets - to some extent expected given that National Sovereignty and Children's Day recently passed. But its presence and permanence runs deeper than that one day, found in unlikely places like the butt of a riot policeman's pistol. A symbol of the republic, indeed. But whose republic? (Turkey is in the process of selecting a new president)

And the mostly-laid back riot police? The third element of demonstrator-authorities-media love triangle that can be witnessed from Tokyo to Delhi.

Writing from Istanbul | April 28, 2007 | Permalink