The Turkish police prevented a protest march to the symbolically important Taksim Square in Istanbul on the occasion of May 1st. They used tear gas against protesters today, as footage from CNN Türk showed. There were also scuffles between demonstrators and police.
Reuters/Dilara Senkaya
Several rows of security forces blocked the path from the Sarachane district to Taksim Square, several kilometers away. According to the media, there were 70 arrests.
The authorities had issued a ban on demonstrations in Taksim Square and cordoned off a large area of the center. They justified this, among other things, with security concerns. Amnesty International called this reasoning “flimsy” and called for the ban to be lifted, citing a ruling by the Constitutional Court that found a ban on demonstrations on the square last year to be unconstitutional.
Place with great symbolic power
Taksim Square in the center of Istanbul is symbolically important for trade unions and the opposition: trade unionists want to commemorate May 1, 1977 with a meeting there. At that time, snipers fired at a demonstration in Taksim Square with around 500,000 participants and killed numerous people. The square has also become a symbol for government opponents because the anti-government Gezi protests began there in 2013.