baghdad

Baghdad, Iraq – Dark and narrow, the stairway that leads to the top floor of Baghdad’s “Turkish Restaurant” building is teeming with people. Once home to a popular rooftop restaurant, the ramshackle structure in the centre of the Iraqi capital has become a landmark of the ongoing mass protests against the country’s political establishment.

The high-rise was evacuated in 2003 when it was bombed by invading US forces, leaving in its wake an empty concrete carcass. For over a decade, the tower remained uninhabited, until a group of demonstrators claimed it as their own on October 25 and made it