Dominique Strauss-Kahn, IMF Director, Latest Shoe Attack Survivor In Turkey

ISTANBUL — A student journalist threw a shoe at IMF Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn on Thursday and ran toward the stage shouting "IMF get out!" as the finance official answered questions at a university in Istanbul.

The white sports shoe bounced off another student's head but missed the IMF chief before landing beside him on the speaker's platform. Some students applauded. Strauss-Kahn moved to the side, and a security guard rushed to protect him.

Other guards quickly blocked the man – a student and a journalist with a small left-wing newspaper – from reaching the platform. They pushed him to the floor, covered his mouth with their hands and then dragged him from the hall.

A female protester also tried to unfurl a banner while shouting "IMF get out!" but she was escorted out of the conference hall.

The conference was then cut short and the hall evacuated.

Both of the protesters were later released, the semiofficial Anatolia news agency said. It was not clear whether they will face any charges.

It was the latest copycat shoe protest imitating the shoe attack last year directed at former President George W. Bush by an Iraqi journalist in Baghdad.

Turkey and the International Monetary Fund are engaged in slow-moving talks about a new loan deal that could boost investor confidence, but Turkey has been reluctant to cut spending and implement austerity measures.

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The debate has stirred nationalist sentiment among some Turks, who are suspicious of what they view as outside interference.

The shoe protester, Selcuk Ozbek, had attended the conference at Istanbul's Bilgi University as a guest student from another Turkish university, Anadolu, said Halil Guven, the dean of the Bilgi University.

Ibrahim Aydin, the managing editor of the Birgun newspaper, confirmed Ozbek worked for the paper but said he was not on duty Thursday and was not representing the paper at the conference.

"I don't think throwing a shoe involves violence, it has become a symbol in a culture of protest," Aydin said.

Strauss-Kahn had been answering questions by Turkish economy students and journalists at the time of the protest. He left the conference hall smiling and 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," he said. "One thing I learned, Turkish students are polite. They waited until the end to complain."

The IMF was also holding its annual conference in Istanbul. Police have detained more than 20 protesters in total.

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Associated Press writers Suzan Fraser and Selcan Hacaoglu contributed to this report.

Comments

[goddessNdiva]

lol

[jamiso]

The guy came to speak and answer questions and have dialog ... sorry, not the time for shoe throwing... its a poor argument.

[Blackorpheus]

IMF, WHO, NGO, EU, NATO, NASA, the World Bank--white-collar criminal-t­echnocrats­, all of them. What can a righteous,­underprivi­leged citizen do but throw his/her shoe at them?

Next step: We establish academies or workshops where we can learn to throw straight?

[KarateKid]

How original.

[Khirad]

Some intrepid entrepreneur should design and market a protest shoe. Maybe customized for special events. One that flies accurately, but doesn't cause severe harm. The only way I'm gettin' behind this is if it is more an insulting symbolic protest rather than an assault (no stiletto heels or steel toe boots, for example).

[DaDT68]

This is timely for me. I am finishing "Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and The Secret History of Capitalism" by Ha-Joon Chang.

His thesis is the best way for developing econmoies to develop is the same way that the rich countries have historically done it: High Tariffs, Infant Industry Protection and State -Owned-Enterprises. The "unholy trinity" IMF, World Bank and WTO are filled with free-market fundementalists who believe a rivised history that rich countires became rich by free trade. History shows that rich countries have only advocated free trade once their econmoies were devloped, hence kicking the ladder out from under them once they made it to the top.

Like religious fundementalist, free-market fundies are hard to persuade, and dangerous when they hold or have the ear of power. We need to introduce baseball to Turkey because this guy had a lousy throw. Poor student by-stander. At least it was a tennis shoe with a soft sole.

[RedneckDem]

I'llcheck that book out myself. Have you read Naomi Kleins "The Shock Doctrine"? Sickest book you'll ever read about disaster capitalism.

[Horst]

Turkish economy is even more mismanaged than that of the US.......where is their bail-out money going to come from?

[Blackorpheus]

IMF, WHO, NGO, EU, NATO, NASA, the World Bank--white-collar criminal-t­echnocrats­, all of them. What can a righteous,­underprivi­leged citizen do but throw his/her shoe at them? Next step: We establish academies or workshops where we can learn to throw straight?

[deli lama]

what's the rules anyway? do you have to take off and throw the shoe you're wearing, or can you bring an extra?

[roberto8ag]

"what's the rules anyway?"

I'm not an expert at throwing shoes, but I think the "bring or not to bring an extra shoe" has been debated for some time now (since people started to throw shoes at Oasis' concerts).

I think it depends... Personally throwing a shoe you're wearing is more artistic, that is, better at showing conveying emotions.

[LyssaBarnes]

Just make sure it is a pair of shoes you really don't like, just in case you have to make a rapid exit. For more dramatic effect, take a stroll through a pasture full of manure.

Just kidding.

[larry278]

Check the Urban Dictionary for the meaning of IMF. The Turks could fling a whole hog (dead & rotted or alive & fetidly foul) at an IMF rep.

[Horst]

Turks are mostly Muslim....won't touch a hog

[futate01]

The shoe revolution has begun. I think it is a good way of showing displeasure. It's a good way of sending the point home, without any real injuries other than to the ego, which deserves a beating in some people.

[fbr79]

Post your address so I can come out and throw my shoe at you to show my displeasure regarding you comment.

[RedneckDem]

Boy, don't be typing threats you don't have the manpower to deliver.

[FirstBiteBooks]

Yeah, you say so because the shoes were not Prada or Gucci. Then the incident could have caused a serious injury to the owner of the shoes.

[Heisenberg]

The IMF, while well-intentioned, is vastly ineffective. It tries to pigeonhole Western economic/political policies on the world's politicall­y/economic­ally dynamic poor countries. These policies simply don't work. Instead, the argument could be made that fostering growth should come from citizens of these countries who are more readily able to create better ideas and markets. A better approach could be modeled after Nobel-prize winning professor of economics Muhammad Yunus's idea of microloans. A safe, efficient, and cheap way to foster virtually risk-free industrial growth while leaving large government beauracracy out.

[The Professor]

I hope the thrower was changed with assult and Dominique kept the shoe.

[abbeyroad]

I'm always entertained when someone chucks a Florsheim, but i must say,
miss the days of the good ol' fashioned CREAM PIE.

It's messy, it's funny, and it gets the job done.

[GarryLad]

Ditto. Shoes Hurt. (A song in there somewhere?)

Trouble is, with the security protocols now in place, it is difficult to get close enough to fling a pie. Perhaps assemblies will now require people to behave as they do at airports.... remove da shoes please.

Next thing you know, people will be flinging panties.

[LyssaBarnes]

If you only knew of the challenges of dealing with some women and their hygiene (or lack thereof) you'd want them to keep the panties on.

[AKJM]

I like it.

[EHarold]

IMF=Criminals

[lightningbolt]

The IMF, like the Federal Reserve, is another criminal institution that gets to counterfeit money. Their currency is called the Special Drawing Rights. It has already been sold to many countries.

[Rule Of Law]

And they were on the financial ropes themselves, virtually powerless for the last few years until President Obama got 100 Billion for them from our pockets yet again--

World leaders meeting in April as part of the Group of 20 summit in London agreed to offer $1.1 trillion in loans and guarantees to developing nations through the International Monetary Fund. As part of that, Obama promised to secure more than $100 billion in U.S.-backed loans, despite critics who said it amounted to ineffective meddling in other countries.