Communist ‘May Day’ Rioters Clash with Police in Turkey

Tens of thousands of people across Istanbul, Turkey, held demonstrations Sunday in honor of the communist holiday “May Day,” with some of the gatherings devolving into riots and clashes with local police officers, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

“Turkish riot police detained scores of demonstrators in Istanbul, pinning some of them to the ground and dragging them away from the rally, which the governor’s office said was unauthorised,” AFP reported of an illegal May Day gathering in Istanbul’s Taksim Square on May 1.

“City officials said the group refused to disperse and 164 were detained, with government-approved rallies elsewhere in Turkey passing off peacefully,” the news agency relayed.

The Istanbul governor’s office banned May Day celebrations in Taksim Square this year, though it had stated in recent days that the municipality would allow May Day celebrations to be held in a specially designated district of the city. Any unauthorized May Day gatherings would be deemed illegal, the governor’s office warned.

Istanbul’s police force “permitted labor unions to lay wreaths on the Republic Monument [of Taksim Square] and make their press statements in small groups,” Turkey’s Hürriyet Daily News observed on May 1.

“Groups of people attempted to march to Taksim [Square] from the Beşiktaş and Şişli districts without any permission, but police intervened in the group. According to sources, around 160 were detained,” the newspaper revealed.

“Police also detained 30 people in central Besiktas [district] and 22 others in Sisli districts,” Reuters reported on May 1 citing Turkey’s Demirören News Agency.

Reuters said one of its journalists on the ground near Istanbul’s Taksim Square on May 1 “saw riot police brawling with and handcuffing protesters, images of which were shown on television by domestic broadcasters.” Footage captured on May 1 in Istanbul by the video news outlet No Comment TV appears to support these reports, as it shows demonstrators clad in red resisting arrest by Turkish police. Similar video footage captured by Canada’s Global News appears to show similar instances of people resisting arrest in Istanbul on May 1.

The Hürriyet Daily News described “tens of thousands [of people] in rallies organized by labor unions, non-governmental organizations and political parties across Turkey” on May 1.

“The Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions (DİSK), the Confederation of Public Sector Trade Unions (KESK) and TÜRK-İş [The Confederation of Turkish Trade Unions] were among the unions entering Taksim [Square],” according to the publication.

May Day is alternatively known as “Labor Day” or “International Workers’ Day.” An international coalition of socialists designated May 1 as a day to honor laborers and trade unions in 1889, thus founding the May Day holiday. The Marxist celebration has since evolved into a major festive occasion in many communist countries or in communities with a strong left-wing presence.

Turkey’s current ruling political party is the Islamist Justice and Development Party (AKP). Turkey boasts an official Communist Party of Turkey (TKP) with a small following. Reuters described the TKP’s Fatih Macoglu as “Turkey’s sole communist mayor” in April 2019 shortly after he was elected as mayor of the eastern Turkish city of Tunceli, a post in which he remains today.

“In a country where politics have often been dominated by right-wing nationalist or Islamist parties and where the TKP won just 0.16 percent of the vote in the March polls, Macoglu’s victory has been a cause for celebration among Turkish leftists,” the news agency observed at the time.

AKP leader and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has deployed riot police to crack down on various types of anti-government protests in Istanbul’s Taksim Square in recent years.