Labour Day Crackdown in Turkey

What many in Turkey viewed as ordinary pronouncement by the Istanbul Governor, Vasip Sahin on Thursday led to security cordon of major streets into the Taksim Square on Friday, May 1, 2015, a day known worldwide as labour day.

The Governor had on Thursday said that demonstrators will not be allowed into the Taksim Square, an area known for its protests and sit down siege against some government policy focus that started some years back. Tahin said the square was not suitable for the commemoration of May 1 as there was a risk to security and protest. Unions and activists while reacting to the Governor’s pronouncement, vowed take to the streets in defiance of the restrictions. 

Primarily to prevent demonstrations on Labour Day, Istanbul was lockdown by police on Friday. According to report, about 10,000 police personnel and other security operatives were mobilised. To stop protesters from entering the Taksim area, security checkpoints were erected severely restricting public transport services that allowed access only to residents.  

Police used tear gas and water cannons to disperse unionist and activist groups while some were arrested in Okmaydan District, another protest hotspot for anti-government clashes in the past.

Crackdown on demonstrators by security operatives in Turkey is further encouraged by the Turkish’s parliament recent passage of a controversial security bill that gives the police more powers to clampdown on demonstrators and protesters.

May 1 every year is a day designated internationally by the United Nations for organised labour around the world to get together, reminisce on workplace situation, decide on the way forward and improve their working conditions and standards of living. It is a day labour unions around the world make collective pronouncements on socioeconomic and political space around which they carry out their services.