JINHA

ISTANBUL – Over 300 were arrested in Istanbul May Day celebrations yesterday, including HDP candidate for Parliament Salih Şahin.

The May 1 Crisis Table, an ad hoc group of human rights representatives and lawyers, reported that their research shows 356 arrests. Meanwhile, the Istanbul governorate’s figures claim 203 arrests and 24 wounded in police actions.

Istanbul was shut down for a radius of kilometers around Taksim Square, in downtown Taksim, all day yesterday. Workers had gathered at two main sites—Beşiktaş and Şişli—on either side of the square, hoping to march in. Arrests and police interventions started early in the morning against workers trying to enter the blockaded square.

The main group of demonstrators gathered at Beşiktaş Square. They were scheduled to march at 12 p.m.. When they met with police, police offered to let a symbolic group of 300 (maximum 500) march. The delegation of union leaders, engineers and doctors’ association representatives meeting with police refused. Police opened fire on the gathered demonstrators with water cannons and tear gas.

At least three members of Parliament were physically hurt. Pervin Buldan and Sabahat Tuncel from the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) were among those affected by the tear gas in Beşiktaş. The CHP's Aykut Erdoğdu injured his hand when he punched a police bus after officers refused to talk to him. Salih Şahin, running for Parliament in the second region of Istanbul with the HDP, was arrested.

On the inland side of Taksim Square, in Şişli, workers set out for Taksim but met with a heavy police contingent. The workers held a sit-in at the police barricade.

The day was also marked by violence apparently committed by either plainclothes police or citizens. In the Fulya neighborhood of Istanbul, a group of men wearing civilian clothes attack a group trying to march to Taksim, hitting them with clubs. One citizen, who was among the May Day group that was dispersed by police in Beşiktaş a short while ago, was stabbed, allegedly by an employee of a local parking lot.

As masses gathered in neighborhoods across the city trying to march to the square, police crackdowns also affected the neighborhoods of Kurtuluş, Hacıahmet, Dolapdere, Okmeydanı and Zincirlikuyu.

In the Fatih neighborhood of Istanbul, the Anti-Capitalist Muslims held a prayer for all workers who have recently died in Turkey due to workplace accidents.

(nt/cm)