Public Kissers Protest PDA Warning from Turkish Subway Officials

There was a lot of concentrated public kissing yesterday in Turkey, which, depending on your threshold for watching other people trade tiny food particles in public, was either an inoffensive spectacle or a reason not to ever participate in a kiss protest.

Literally dozens of couples met at a subway stop in Ankara to protest a public service announcement from Turkish subway officials warning people “to act in accordance with moral rules” by not kissing in public. The announcement came after security cameras captured footage of a couple kissing, a moment of surveillance voyeurism that shamed Turkish subway authorities so badly they decided to wield their PA-system power. That prompted an opposition lawmaker to make an inquiry into the Islamist-rooted ruling party over whether subway officials are really authorized to make such sweeping announcements (secularists in Turkey fear that the ruling party wants to expand the role of Islam in Turkey).

The kissing brigade wasted no time mobilizing in Ankara, with some 100 people convening at a subway station on Saturday afternoon to protest-kiss in public. Meanwhile, a smaller, pro-Islamist group staged a counter-protest, and some lucky voyeur in the subway surveillance command center was treated to hours of kiss footage.