The soothing sound of a grand piano drifted across Taksim Square
last night, bringing a welcome calm a day after violence rocked the area.
Throughout
the day protesters had been readying themselves for another assault by
police.
In Gezi
Park they were stockpiling gas masks and goggles to protect against tear gas,
which police used with abandon the night before. The first aid tent was a hive
of activity as volunteers laid down tarpaulin and received medical supplies in
anticipation of injured protesters. Journalists were shooed away.
In the
early evening protesters on one side of the square faced off with police,
chanting: “Everywhere is Taksim, everywhere is resistance.”
The prime
minister had predicted earlier in the day that the protests would be over in 24
hours, and there was a feeling among the crowd that another night of violence
lay ahead.
But then,
in the space of a few hours, the atmosphere in the square changed; and it had a
lot to do with one man and his piano.
Hundreds
gathered around German musician Davide Martello as he clinked away late into
the evening. They were mostly silent while he played John Lennon’s Imagine,
some Bach, and his own composition “Lightsoldiers.”
After
playing for an hour at the edge of the square, Martello enlisted the help of
his new fans to drag the grand piano closer to the centre, beside Gezi
Park.
Martello
built the piano himself, attached lights so he could play in the dark, and
pulled it on a trailer from his hometown Konstanz, Germany, to play to
protesters in Taksim Square.
The
evening passed without incident any major incident. Some protesters even had
time for a game of football in the square.
After his
performance, Martello wrote on Facebook: "Good night Istanbul, tomorrow I
will playing again on the square for freedom and our rights."
