Leading labor unions and Turkey’s main opposition party insist on holding a May Day demonstration in İstanbul’s central Taksim Square despite a government ban and measures aimed at limiting people’s access to the area, making a confrontation likely.
In addition to representatives from the major unions such as the Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions (DİSK), the Confederation of Public Sector Trade Unions (KESK) and many professional organizations, the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), several left-wing and socialist parties such as the Labor Party, the Left Party, Workers Party of Turkey (TİP) and the Communist Movement of Turkey (TKH) have called on people to gather in İstanbul’s Saraçhane neighborhood on Wednesday from where a march will be held to Taksim Square to mark International Workers’ Day.
Their decision comes in defiance of a ban imposed by the İstanbul Governor’s Office, which has allowed May Day demonstrations only in other venues across the city. However, labor unions and a number of political parties say Taksim has symbolic importance for May Day and that the government ban contravenes a Constitutional Court decision last year that found violations of the right to free assembly in the controversial ban.
The symbolic importance of Taksim Square stems from the killing of 34 people by unknown assailants on May Day in 1977 when the assailants opened fire on thousands of people who had come together in the area. May Day is also marked as a day of commemoration for the victims of Bloody May Day.
The area was off limits to demonstrators following the attack in 1977. About three decades after the incident, under tight security, Taksim Square became the venue of peaceful demonstrations aside from a few minor incidents in 2010, 2011 and 2012. The area was closed to demonstrations again in 2013 out of security concerns.
May Day detentions
Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya also made clear on Monday that the government will not allow labor unions and civil society organizations to hold a May Day demonstration in Taksim Square out of public safety concerns. He claimed that there is heavy vehicle and pedestrian traffic in the area, which he said makes it difficult for law enforcement to take security measures and that such a large gathering poses threats to the protection of individual rights and liberties.
May Day demonstrations in Taksim are generally marked by the detention of dozens of protestors, but this year the detentions have started even earlier.
Yerlikaya announced on X on Tuesday that 58 people across 11 provinces have been detained on accusations that they were preparing to provoke May Day demonstrations on Wednesday.
İstanbul under ‘emergency rule’
In the wake of the insistence by the labor unions and some political parties to hold a May Day demonstration in Taksim, the İstanbul Governor’s Office has announced measures aimed at slowing public transportation across the city on Wednesday.
The governor’s office said in a statement on Tuesday that some roads will be closed to traffic, while there would be interruptions and closures in road and sea traffic lanes.
The İstanbul police also set up barricades and fences around Taksim Square on Tuesday to prevent the demonstrators from reaching the area on Wednesday. İstanbul Governor Davut Gül said on Tuesday that more than 42,000 law enforcement officers will be on duty in İstanbul on May Day, while calling on people to gather in the 40 venues designated by the government for May Day events.
Some likened the measures taken by the police and the governor’s office to a temporary emergency rule in Turkey’s most densely populated city.
CHP exerts pressure on minister
Meanwhile, CHP leader Özgür Özel said at a party meeting on Tuesday that the government was feeling unnecessarily “anxious” about the prospects of a May Day demonstration in Taksim. Özel also called Interior Minister Yerlikaya on Monday, requesting that he review the ministry’s decision to ban the May Day events in Taksim Square. He said he called the minister again on Tuesday, but the minister rejected his request to open Taksim Square to May Day demonstrators, claiming that there are calls from illegal organizations to sabotage the demonstration.
He said his party would march with the members of the labor unions to Taksim on Wednesday, describing the government ban on Taksim a “violation of the constitution.”
The Amnesty International rights group also said the ban “is based on entirely spurious security and public order grounds” and called for it to be lifted.
"The unlawful ban on May Day celebrations in Istanbul must be lifted"
Tmw, trade unions, opposition parties & other civil society organizations are expected to gather in Taksim Square despite a unlawful ban announced by the authorities#Turkey #Türkiyehttps://t.co/lRtstl947w
— amnestypress (@amnestypress) April 30, 2024
Calling the square “a place of huge symbolic significance,” Amnesty added: “For more than a decade, the Turkish authorities have unlawfully restricted people’s right to assembly and criminalized peaceful protests that take place in the square.”
