On this International Workers’ Day, more than 200 people were arrested in Istanbul, this Wednesday, May 1, 2024. They had responded to the call to demonstrate by opposition parties and trade union organizations.
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Forty-two thousand police officers were deployed this Wednesday morning by the Ministry of the Interior of Türkiye, who claimed to fear terrorist actions. The center of the country’s economic capital had been barricaded to prevent access to the symbolic Taksim Square.
The opposition mayor, largely re-elected a month ago, still called for a rally in front of the municipality. This is particularly where incidents between demonstrators and the police broke out.
In different parts of the city, people who tried to defy the roadblocks were arrested. In total, the Interior Ministry reports 217 arrests in Istanbul.
Taksim Square had become the epicenter of the challenge to the power of Recep Tayyip Erdogan in 2013. Since then, gatherings have been prohibited there.
Last year, Turkey’s Constitutional Court ruled that preventing May Day celebrations in Taksim Square was a violation of the Basic Law. According to Amnesty International, this ban is based on totally fallacious security and public order reasons.
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