Turkish Police Use Tear Gas and Arrest Nearly 400 in Istanbul May Day Demonstrations

Turkish police fired tear gas and arrested dozens of people participating in May Day demonstrations in Istanbul on Friday, as thousands staged rallies across the country.

According to the CHD Lawyers Association, almost 400 people were arrested in Istanbul, where police fired tear gas into the crowd from riot-control vehicles.

Images aired on the opposition channel HALK TV also showed the president of the Turkish Workers’ Party, Erkan Baş, engulfed in pepper spray.

"Those in power already speak 365 days a year, so let workers talk about the hardships they face at least one day a year," he said.

Two groups were specially singled out in the city's European side after signalling their intention to march to Taksim Square, the scene of several anti-government protests in the past, which was sealed off overnight by police.

A union official, Başaran Aksu, was arrested just after he had denounced the Taksim lockdown.

"You can't close off a square to the workers of Turkey. Everyone uses Taksim, for official ceremonies, for celebrations. Only the labourers, the workers, the poor find the square closed to them," he said.

The 1 May rallies, which celebrate workers and the working classes, see major police deployments in Turkey every year, with a large area in the heart of Istanbul sealed off.

Last year, protests moved to the Kadıköy area of the city and more than 400 people were arrested.

On Friday, a large deployment of police and metal barricades was seen choking access to central neighbourhoods of Istanbul.

In the Mecidiyeköy district, police were seen using tear gas on the crowd, which included members of the Marxist-Leninist People’s Liberation Party (HKP) who tried to push through while chanting "USA murderer, AKP (Turkey's ruling party) accomplice."

Police encircling the Beşiktaş neighbourhood stepped in, sometimes violently, whenever a chant was taken up by the demonstrators, with eyewitnesses reporting several protesters being thrown to the ground.

Unions and civil society associations had called for the 1 May demonstrations under the slogan "Bread. Peace. Freedom."

Inflation in Turkey is officially pegged at 30% but is closer to 40%, according to independent estimates.

In the capital Ankara, about 100 coal miners who had staged a nine-day hunger strike to demand wage arrears were cheered as they joined the May Day march, which was notably large and youthful and monitored by a significant police presence.

Earlier this week, Turkish authorities issued arrest and search warrants against 62 people, of whom they deemed 46, including journalists, trade unionists and opposition figures, were "likely to carry out attacks."