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10 images that served as a catalyst for global change

Postmedia Network, First posted: Thursday, September 03, 2015 07:43 PM EDT | Updated:, Thursday, September 03, 2015 08:41 PM EDT, Source

 

There are few moments in history that captured the attention of the world in a most profound way.

 

Even fewer of those moments were captured in a single image that changed people's view on global issues with a snap of the lens.

 

On Wednesday, a photograph of a boy's lifeless body face-down on a tourist beach in Turkey - and then another of a paramilitary police officer carrying the deceased toddler up the beach - swept across social media and then newspapers around the world.

 

Embedded image permalink

 

The boy, later identified as three-year-old Alan Kurdi, was among 12 Syrian refugees who died trying to reach the Greek island of Kos. Among the dead were Kurdi's five-year-old brother Ghalib and mother Rehan.

 

The images prompted an outpouring of not only sympathy for the family and the other victims, but also anger over the perceived inaction to help refugees.

 

The hashtag #KiyiyaVuranInsanlik - "humanity washed ashore" - became the top trending topic on Twitter.

 

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls posted to Twitter his view on Wednesday: "He had a name: Aylan Kurdi. Urgent action required - A Europe-wide mobilization is urgent," he wrote.

 

On Thursday, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Kurdi reminded him of his own son, Ben, at that age.

 

Only time will tell if Kurdi's death and the sobering images will galvanize enough people to result in tangible change when it comes to global policy on refugees.

 

With that in mind, here are 10 images that did serve as a catalyst for global change.

 

- With Files from Reuters

Replies sorted oldest to newest

A paramilitary police officer carries the lifeless body of Alan Kurdi, 3, after a number of migrants died after boats carrying them to the Greek island of Kos capsized, near the Turkish resort of Bodrum on Sept. 2, 2015. The family — Abdullah, his wife Rehan and their two boys, 3-year-old Alan and 5-year-old Ghalib — embarked on the perilous boat journey only after their bid to move to Canada was rejected. The tides also washed up the bodies of the boy's 5-year-old brother Galib and mother Rehan on Turkey's Bodrum peninsula Wednesday. The father, Abdullah, survived the tragedy. (AP Photo/DHA)

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In this June 8, 1972 photo, South Vietnamese forces follow behind terrified children, including naked nine-year-old Kim Phuc, centre, as they run down Route 1 near Trang Bang, South Vietnam, following an aerial napalm attack on suspected Viet Cong hiding places. The photo, which became known as "Napalm Girl" changed the debate on the Vietnam War in the U.S. (AP Photo/Nick Ut, File)

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A man stands in front of a column of tanks in the Avenue of Eternal Peace in Tiananmen Square in Beijing in this June 5, 1989 photo known as "Tank Man." In the days leading up to this event, thousands of protesters and innocent bystanders were killed by their own government because they wanted more rights. The man was never identified and it is believed we was never killed for his act of defiance. (REUTERS/Arthur Tsang/Files)

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In this Aug. 9, 1945 photo, a mushroom cloud rises moments after the atomic bomb was dropped on the large military port of Nagasaki, Japan. On two days in August 1945, U.S. planes dropped two atomic bombs, one on Hiroshima and one on Nagasaki, the first and only time in history nuclear weapons have been used. Days later, the Japanese surrendered to bring an end to the Second World War. Not only was the unprecedented destructive power of nuclear bombs displayed, it also allowed scientists to determine the difference in effectiveness between uranium and plutonium. Between the two bombings, over 100,000 people were incinerated along with infrastructure. Lifelong physical and psychological scars were left on survivors and on the cities themselves. (AP Photo/File)

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South African anti-apartheid leader and African National Congress member Nelson Mandela, centre, and his wife Winnie, centre right, raise their fists upon Mandela's release from Victor Verster prison in Paarl on February 11, 1990 after 27 years behind bars. In 1993, Mandela was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize along with President F.W. de Klerk and one year later, Mandela became South Africa's first democratically elected president. (AFP Photo/ Alexander Joe)

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This photo taken in April of 1945 shows prisoners in the barracks of the Buchenwald Nazi concentration camp. The photo was later used to depict what Nazism looked like to both Germans and Americans after the war. Eli Wiesel, who survived the Holocaust, is visible in the middle cubicle of the middle tier on the right. Wiesel went on to become an activist on Holocaust issues and has won the Nobel Peace Prize. Over 60 million people died in the Holocaust. (File photo)

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In this 1993 file photo, a vulture stalks a starving South Sudanese child as she attempts to make it to a feeding centre near the village of Ayod. The photo, which won photographer Kevin Carter a Pulitzer Prize, became a metaphor for Africa's despair during a time of civil war and famine. (Kevin Carter/Postmedia Network/File)

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This June 11, 1963 photo depicts the horrific, self-immolation by fire of Buddhist monk Thich Quang Duc in Saigon, South Vietnam. Duc's suicide was done in protest to the repressive regime of Catholic Ngo Dinh Diem and laws that prohibited flying the Buddhist flag. After seeing the photo, U.S. President John F. Kennedy was quoted as saying, “No news picture in history has generated so much emotion around the world as that one.” (Malcolm Browne/AP/File)

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This May 4, 1970 photo shows then 14-year-old Mary Vecchio kneeling in anguish beside the body of Jeffrey Miller, one of the student victims of the Kent State shooting. The incident took place at the height of unpopularity of the Vietnam War in the U.S., just days after President Richard Nixon announced its expansion with the invasion into Cambodia. The announcement provoked protests on campuses nationwide, culminating in the shootings at Kent State University when Ohio National Guardsmen opened fire at students, killing four and wounding nine others. The photo became an iconic image of the repercussions of the Vietnam War in the U.S. The photo won a Pulitzer Prize for student photographer John Filo. (John Filo/File)

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South Vietnamese Gen. Nguyen Ngoc Loan, chief of the national police, shoots Vietcong officer Nguyen Van Lem, also known as Bay Lop, on a Saigon street on Feb. 1, 1968. The photo, taken a split second after the trigger was pulled, became a global icon of the Vietnam War’s brutality and savagery. (Eddie Adams/Associated Press)

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Do you have any Images of our Natives Brothers in USA or Canada. the West should be on trial for
all the wrong doing to all Human in the world.

South Vietnamese Gen. Nguyen Ngoc Loan, chief of the national police, shoots Vietcong officer Nguyen Van Lem, also known as Bay Lop, on a Saigon street on Feb. 1, 1968. The photo, taken a split second after the trigger was pulled, became a global icon of the Vietnam War’s brutality and savagery. (Eddie Adams/Associated Press)

 

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