After weeks of sometimes violent confrontation with police, Turkish protesters have found a new form of resistance: standing still and silent. 
 
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 Erdem Gunduz, right, stands silently on Taksim Square in Istanbul, Turkey, early Tuesday, June 18, 2013. After weeks of confrontation with police, sometimes violent, Turkish protesters are using a new... (Associated Press) 
 
 Erdem Gunduz, centre, stands silently on Taksim Square in Istanbul, Turkey, early Tuesday, June 18, 2013. After weeks of confrontation with police, sometimes violent, Turkish protesters are using a new... (Associated Press) 
 
 The first such protest was carried out late Monday by performance artist Erdem Gunduz, who stood for hours at Istanbul's central Taksim Square, in passive defiance of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. 
 
 The square has been sealed off from mass protests since police cleared it over the weekend, but have not stopped pedestrians from entering. 
 
 Others copied him in Istanbul and other cities, and the act provoked widespread comment on social media. 
 
 Erdem's vigil was broken up by police early Tuesday after others joined him. 
 
 A police crackdown that began May 31 against environmentalists and other activists in Taksim Square set off protests nationwide. ||||| A Turkish man has staged an eight-hour silent vigil in Istanbul's Taksim Square, the scene of violent clashes between police and anti-government protesters in recent weeks, inspiring hundreds of others to follow his lead. 
 
 Erdem Gunduz said he wanted to take a stand against police stopping demonstrations near the square, the Dogan news agency reported. 
 
 He stood silently, facing the Ataturk Cultural Centre which was draped in Turkish flags and a portrait of Turkey's founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, from 6pm on Monday. 
 
 By 2am on Tuesday, when the police moved in, about 300 people had joined him. Ten people, who refused to be moved on by police, were detained. 
 
 Gunduz, swiftly dubbed "standing man" on social media in Turkey, inspired similar protests elsewhere in Istanbul, as well as in the capital, Ankara, and the city of Izmir on the Aegean coast. 
 
 The silent protests were in stark contrast to demonstrations at the weekend, which saw some of the fiercest clashes so far when police fired teargas and water cannons to clear thousands from Taksim Square. 
 
 What began in May as a protest by environmentalists upset over plans to build on a park adjoining Taksim Square has grown into a movement against the prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, presenting the greatest public challenge to his 10-year leadership. ||||| Turkish police have reportedly confiscated a piano that was being used to serenade Istanbul's protesters. Davide Martello claims that officials seized his grand piano as part of Saturday's raid on Gezi Park. 
 
 Martello became an unlikely icon for the sit-in at Taksim Square, where thousands of people had gathered to protest the increasingly authoritarian rule of prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. On Wednesday night, the German musician wheeled his piano into the throng and began performing for the masses – staging swelling piano recitals that lasted for as long as 14 hours. He had soon attracted a huge coterie of supporters, dozens of news reports and the makings of a profitable campaign. "The idea is to inspire politicians through music," Martello told the New York Times. 
 
 On Saturday night, at Erdoğan's order, police moved into Taksim Square, violently clearing the protesters. "The Turkish police seized my piano, my car and my Iphone. I need help!!!" Martello, 31, posted on Facebook. The only reason he escaped arrest, he said, was "because I have an angel with me". Speaking to the Times, Martello recalled the lead-up to the confrontation: "[I] started rolling my piano down to [my car on] the street and suddenly got caught in a thick cloud of tear gas. I couldn't believe it." 
 
 As the clouds cleared, he tried to begin playing, just "on the side of the street". "But then police appeared," Martello said. He was told to take his belongings from his vehicle and leave the area; officials have apparently taken the car, trailer and piano away. The German said he is in negotiations to get his items back, but "it's quite likely that the Turkish authorities won't give it back for free :(". 
 
 According to his website, Martello aims to bring his piano to every capital city in the world. So far, he only seems to have done Athens, Podgorica, Ljubljana, Budapest, Monaco, Tirana and Istanbul. "I just need my piano back before I decide whether I'll stay [in Istanbul any] longer," he said.
– Turkish protesters said over the weekend they planned to hold their ground in Taksim Square, and one man is leading the way, the BBC reports. Performance artist Erdem Gunduz stood for eight hours in the square beginning at about 6pm yesterday, facing a portrait of Kemal Ataturk, who founded today's secular Turkey. Gunduz, who earned the title "duranadam" ("standing man") kept silent, as some 300 others joined him—and others copied the protest elsewhere in Turkey, the AP notes. Police eventually broke up the protest around 2am today, detaining 10 people who wouldn't leave, the Guardian reports. The "standing man" wasn't the first artistic protest in the square: A German musician had been playing piano concerts for demonstrators, with some lasting up to 14 hours, the Guardian notes. The pianist, Davide Martello, says his instrument was confiscated during Saturday's raid, after which police sealed off the square. The BBC reports that it reopened yesterday.