Authorities enforce ban on gatherings at Taksim Square, a historic site for labor movement.
On Friday, Turkish police detained about 360 people who tried to celebrate May Day in Istanbul’s Taksim Square, an emblematic site for the labor movement where demonstrations on this day are banned.
A group of 37 activists from the People’s Liberation Party (HKP) were arrested as they attempted to approach Taksim, demanding the right to demonstrate there. Another group of 20 workers heading to the square from another area were also detained.
Several media outlets reported arrests in other parts of the city. Police used tear gas during several charges, and some media outlets reported that lawmakers were among those affected.
On Thursday, the Istanbul Governor’s Office announced that protests, marches and public events would be banned throughout May 1 in four districts, including Beyoglu, where the Taksim Square is located.
Authorities have restricted maritime transport between the European side, where Taksim is located, and the Asian side, where the only two areas authorized by the government for demonstrations are situated.
Taksim has been a symbolic site for Labor Day celebrations since 1977, a year known as “Bloody May Day,” when 34 people were killed after unidentified gunmen began firing on the crowd. Most of the victims died crushed or suffocated in the human stampede caused by panic, while at least 130 others were injured.
Following the 1980 military coup, marches were banned at the site, a veto that for decades fueled leftist demands to reclaim the symbolic space.
Between 2010 and 2012, Taksim once again hosted massive May Day celebrations with the participation of hundreds of thousands of people. Since 2013, the Turkish government has again banned gatherings in the square, leading each year to attempts to march there, arrests and large police deployments.
teleSUR/ JF
Source: EFE
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