Turkish Police Clash with May Day Protesters in Istanbul
May 1, 2025,
Turkish police scuffled with protesters in Istanbul as unions and NGOs defied a ban and attempted to march to Taksim Square. Demonstrators were blocked in Besiktas and Sisli, with some forcefully detained and dragged onto buses. Taksim Square, symbolic for May Day protests and the 1977 tragedy that claimed 34 lives, remains a flashpoint for labor demonstrations in Turkey
Mass arrests ahead of May Day demonstrations in Turkey
By Barış Demir
More than 150 members of left parties, trade unions and youth organisations were detained in house raids on Tuesday and Wednesday in major cities including Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir, ahead of the May Day demonstrations.
One of the grounds for the police operations in Istanbul is that workers and youth want to celebrate May Day in Taksim Square. Since 2013, the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, in violation of the constitution, has closed this historically important square for the working class to May Day demonstrations.
In a 2023 ruling, the Constitutional Court, referring to the massacre that took place during the 1977 May Day rally, ruled that Taksim was the “common memory” and “symbolic value” of workers and labourers and that the ban was a violation of rights. In 1977, 34 people were killed and 136 wounded by gunfire during the celebrations in Taksim Square. The fact that the massacre was never properly investigated reinforced the perception that it was a state reaction to the growing class struggle.
The Socialist Equality Group released a statement on X/Twitter on Wednesday condemning “the arrest of large numbers of people in house raids in many provinces, especially in Istanbul, just before May Day”.
“These operations are meant to intimidate not only those detained but also the broader masses of workers and youth who took to the streets last month,” the statement said.
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