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Dominique Strauss-Kahn, International Monetary Fund's managing director, speaks to students at Istanbul's Bilgi University - Source: Reuters -
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A Turkish student threw his shoe at International Monetary Fund
Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn as he made a speech to
students in Istanbul ahead of the IMF's annual meeting.
Hundreds of protesters from left-wing parties and unions marched
peacefully through central Istanbul, chanting anti-IMF slogans.
Security has been stepped up across the city ahead of the IMF
and World Bank annual meetings, which begin on Saturday with a
meeting of Group of Seven finance ministers.
Security guards dragged Selcuk Ozbek, 24 - who is also a journalist
at small left-wing newspaper Birgun - away after he threw a white
sports shoe and rushed towards the stage.
The shoe landed at the feet of Strauss-Kahn.
"Get out of the university, thief IMF," Ozbek shouted during
Strauss-Kahn's speech at Istanbul's Bilgi University as part of the
IMF-World Bank events.
The incident echoed that of an Iraqi journalist who hurled his
shoes, a grave insult in the Muslim world, at then US President
George Bush last December.
A female student, who tried to unfurl a protest banner, was also
dragged away by security guards.
Strauss-Kahn shrugged off the incident.
"It is important for us to have an open debate. I was glad to meet
students and hear their views. This is what the IMF needs to do,
even if not everyone agrees with us, one thing I learned, Turkish
students are polite. They waited until the end to complain," he
said in a statement.
IMF spokeswoman Conny Lotze said the shoe-thrower was released as
the IMF decided not to press charges against him.
Up to 30 students started chanting slogans against the IMF and
Turkey's AK Party government, such as collaborators AKP outside the
university as police took Ozbek away in a car.
Police detained some of the protesters at Bilgi University.
"Throwing a shoe exceeds the limits. This is sad for us. Turkey is
hosting an important meeting and we have to pass it well," Turkish
Interior Minister Besir Atalay told reporters.
He said security measures had been taken for the IMF-World Bank
meetings.
"He (Strauss-Kahn) is the representative of global capitalism. I
tried to raise my views by protesting against him at a time
education and health services here have been privatised," student
Emre Avci, a member of the Turkish Communist Party, who was among
the protesters, said.
There is significant opposition among Turkish students to the IMF,
which helped bail Turkey out of a financial crisis in 2001.
Ankara and the IMF are negotiating a possible new loan agreement
after the last one expired last year.
"As we are a left-wing newspaper, we congratulate him (Ozbek) on
his protest," Baris Ince, news editor at Birgun newspaper,
said.
