ISTANBUL \u2014 When what had been a gentrifying neighborhood\u2019s most successful art walk devolved into a bloody street fight, it raised embarrassing questions for a city celebrating its status as a 2010 European Capital of Culture.<\/p>\n
Here in the Tophane neighborhood of the central Beyoglu district of Istanbul, new galleries have squeezed into retail spaces next to butchers, bakers and grocers. What once was primarily home to migrants from eastern Anatolia has become a mixed zone of traditional men-only tea houses and trendy designer boutiques. As in other cultural capitals like Paris or New York, gallery owners have coordinated art openings to draw in critics and collectors and to get a buzz going as visitors enjoy glasses of wine while strolling from exhibit to exhibit.<\/p>\n
But on the evening of Sept. 21, the crowds outside three Tophane galleries were attacked by angry mobs, with reports of men armed with knives, iron bars, broken bottles, frozen oranges and pepper spray beating people who sipped sangria and smoked cigarettes on sidewalks. As many as 15 people were reported wounded, including visitors from Poland, the Netherlands, Germany and Britain, including a British-Turkish artist who required stitches to close a head wound. Seven suspects were detained and released.<\/p>\n
Why this happened is a puzzle. \u201cAfter all, a gallery ought to be a safe place to visit, no?\u201d the gallery owner Derya Demir said during a recent interview.<\/p>\n
Theories abound, including a plot by organized criminals to block gentrification that impedes illegal activities; anger from stricter Muslim landlords backed by a government that opposes alcohol; rage by ultranationalists who object to Ataturk-twisting sculptures; even a plot by the Deep State to discredit residents in order to more easily evict them from valuable real estate.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt first people thought it was a reaction to this show,\u201d said Ms. Demir, inside her Galeri NON on Bogazkesen Caddesi, or \u201cThroatcutters Avenue,\u201d where an exhibit by the artist Extrastruggle showed the founder of the modern Turkish republic sporting angel wings and turned on his head.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat night we had a total of about 500 visitors, but on and off,\u201d she said. \u201cThere were never more than 100 people outside on the street. I heard someone say there\u2019s a fight; there\u2019s an attack.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople were trying to close the gallery doors,\u201d she said, \u201cand I got my assistant to close the metal shutters over the glass windows because the attackers were trying to get inside. I was told there were around 30 attackers, maybe more.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was inside, and we all started coughing because of the pepper gas. I shut off all the lights. Everyone was on their mobile phones calling the police.\u201d<\/p>\n
In calls to and from other gallery owners, Ms. Demir learned that three galleries were being attacked.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe police were half an hour late,\u201d she said, \u201cand then they sent only two officers. By then the attackers were gone and also most of the guests. We thought we were safe.\u201d But a second wave of attackers soon appeared.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were four, then they became 20, beating people with sticks and frozen oranges,\u201d she said. \u201cOne guest\u2019s nose was broken \u2014 in front of the police. One gallery\u2019s entrance window was broken.We called more police. This time they sent a van, but as far as I could tell they didn\u2019t arrest anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Beyoglu Police Station responded to the disturbance. An officer at the station said recently that \u201cthere is an investigation, but for now, no one has been arrested.\u201d<\/p>\n
The officer said the fight broke out at another gallery, Outlet, after the owner had been warned by the landlord not to sell alcohol on his property. \u201cThe landlord\u2019s relatives went to her that night to say don\u2019t sell alcohol, or at least just keep it indoors,\u201d the officer said. \u201cBut you can\u2019t smoke inside the gallery, so people stepped outside with their drinks to smoke. Going outside with their drinks \u2014 that\u2019s how the problem started.\u201d<\/p>\n
Three young men came, the officer said. \u201cThese friends attacked with pepper gas, and a fight broke out.\u201d<\/p>\n
via Art Walk Turns Into Street Fight in Istanbul – NYTimes.com<\/span>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" ISTANBUL \u2014 When what had been a gentrifying neighborhood\u2019s most successful art walk devolved into a bloody street fight, it raised embarrassing questions for a city celebrating its status as a 2010 European Capital of Culture. Here in the Tophane neighborhood of the central Beyoglu district of Istanbul, new galleries have squeezed into retail spaces […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":51702,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2939],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cultureart"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25219"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25219\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}