The silence is predictable in a nation that muzzles free expression, but where are the rest of world’s reporters?

In early September, students from Middle East Technical University (METU) set up camp to block construction of a 8-lane highway planned to cut through their campus. Local residents and others from wider Ankara are supporting protestors by providing food and supplies. The photo above shows a camp banner declaring, “Don’t touch my neighborhood”.

METU is Turkey’s leading technical university with100 undergraduate programs including architecture, engineering and arts and sciences.  It’s been a dissident stronghold since its founding in 1956, and continues to attract a heavily politicized student body.

Protesters including students, faculty members and experts from the Chamber of Architects claim the road project lacks necessary permissions, runs counter to accepted urban planning guidelines, and will not relieve area traffic as claimed by Mayor Melih Gökçek.

The METU campus is a protected area and is home to the capitol’s only forest. Protesters point out that several shopping malls have already sprung up along the new highway route, indicating that the project is less about regional transport and more about commercial development.

The mayor has a history of environmental disregard: his previous efforts to demolish university buildings were defeated in court. He also tried to expropriate a lake within the university grounds, but this was also defeated.

Green Prophet’s reported on similar attempts to usurp public green space in Beirut’s Jesuit Garden and in Istanbul’s Gezi Park.

The message is clear to those seeking to destroy public parkland – keep off our grass.

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Retired forestry engineer Huseyin Cetinel decided to brighten up a few Istanbul neighborhoods, slapping $800 bucks’ worth of rainbow-colored paint on public walkways over the course of four days.

His guerrilla artworks (which were probably inspired by the guerrilla painters in Beirut last year) were an instant hit with the local community.  Images of the vibrant stairs have gone around the Twittersphere, and were soon picked up by national television and international newspapers.

Then the government came in and painted everything gray.

Cetinel started with a massive Findikli staircase in the central district of Beyoglu  (see the artist seated on those steps, above).

Tourists quickly descended on the site for colorful photo ops.  A pair of newlyweds used the artwork as backdrop to their wedding photos. New bride Gamze Ozmermer told the New York Times, “The air of conflict that our world is caught in, all those human losses…misery needs healing. Colorful scenes might be a remedy.”

The LGBT community also applauded the caper, recognizing their trademark rainbow flag in the work, but the 64-year-old artist sidestepped politics, telling Everywhere Taksim, “I didn’t do it for a group or as a form of activism. I did it to make people smile.”

He completed his painting on August 27, and two days later, without warning, the Beyoglu municipality sent in crews to cover the colors with a coat of dull gray.

When local television reporters sought Cetinel for his reaction, he pointed out that all of nature is brightly colored. “Where does this gray come from?” he asked. “Did we have another Pompeii and get flooded with ash?”

[youtube]http://youtu.be/NcrAEBOq3OA[/youtube]

Heavy commentary on social media – having just discovered the painting – quickly turned angry. Using Twitter to mobilize, residents came out in large numbers to restore the steps. Additional stairs and walkways were painted in nearby neighborhoods. Finally, the municipality also joined the effort.

Istanbul is called “the city of seven hills” with dozens of public stairways threading through ancient neighborhoods for pedestrians seeking to avoid heavy car traffic. It’s understandable that the effort to enliven the footpaths would be popular.

Stairs painted in Beirut last summer:

To the young, liberal and educated Turks who supported the Taksim demonstrations, the rainbow stairs incident seemed yet another sign of intolerance and a usurpation of their right to public space. It was wise for the municipality to rectify their actions, offsetting a new wave of anti-government protests.

All images from Facebook and Twitter

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