Bombed building and humble tuk-tuk become symbols of Iraq’s uprising
- Hollow building overlooking Baghdad’s Tahrir Square becomes centre of Iraq’s uprising
- Tuk-tuk drivers, typically seen in poorer parts of the capital, have become the unofficial heroes of the protest movement
The skeleton of a high-rise building overlooking Baghdad’s central Tahrir Square known as the Turkish Restaurant has become a temporary home and a bustling centre for protesters staging demonstrations against Iraq’s ruling elites.
Groups of young men have occupied all 18 floors of the once-empty building, with its cramped unlit narrow staircases. Inside, they dance, smoke shisha, play backgammon and chant for the downfall of the ruling elites.
The mass squat started after a second wave of mass demonstrations against Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi’s government began on the night of October 24.
The demonstrators want to end the post-2003 political order, which they see as endemically corrupt and which has failed to deliver basic services. Abdul Mahdi has promised reforms and a broad cabinet reshuffle but that has so far failed to appease them.
Once a commercial centre, the building was bombed in two wars and subsequently abandoned. It has been dubbed the Turkish Restaurant because of the restaurant that occupied its top floor in the 1980s.