Nowadays the streets of Turkey are full of colors. Rainbows are flowing through the grey stones of pavements and steps. Once again we are surrounded by an unexpected revolt, but this time it is full of joy and brightness in it. A rainbow movement is on Turkey’s agenda and the genuine side of this movement is the fact that it has started with a local tradesman’s individual act for his neighborhood.
On 27 August Mustafa Çelikel a 64 years old tradesman and his assistant from Istanbul started to paint the grey steps linking the neighborhoods of Fındıklı and Cihangir in rainbow colors. After 4 days of voluntary painting almost 200 stairs, the colorful steps immediately became a phenomenon among citizens and tourists. Çelikel himself became famous for initiating such a meaningful act and so as the rainbow steps. Although, Çelikel’s aim was to simply “beautify his surroundings”, later on due to the earlier linkage of rainbow stairs to LGBT (gay rights groups); he emphasized that he was against any kind of discrimination and that he was respectful to every individual and their beliefs.
Despite the local tradesman’s appreciated vision of liberty and humanity, authorities of Istanbul had a different approach in mind. In the following day, Beyoglu Municipality interfered with almost a secret late night operation and re-painted the stairs dull grey. This was either a meaningless reaction for the colors, or simply it was an action against the unauthorized painting of public property. The aim was to beautify the neighborhood solely; even so the municipality reflected an intolerant authority and control understanding of its jurisdiction. Subsequently dull grey stairs caused an immediate reaction among social media and what started as rainbow stairs has turned out to a rainbow revolt with “#direnmerdiven” (#resiststeps) hashtags and with a motto of “resist against fascism with a colorful life”. Although the mayor has taken a step back and stated that they regret re-painting the steps to dull grey; “take your brush and come” became a call on social media and self-organized “stair-painting” events have exploded among different cities of Turkey. So that hundreds of rainbow photos of different cities and districts were shared through social media in a few days with stresses over peace and humanity.
Turkey has lots of colors these days and unquestioningly rainbow revolt became one of the most sincere and beautiful resistance movements of the streets.
