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Hundreds of people were arrested in Istanbul, with 50,000 police officers located in the city when the authorities were trying to crack protests.
Public transport has been closed to stop people who reached the taxi area where the demonstrations have been banned since 2013.
Personnel from the Turkish capital showed contractions between the Omants and the participants of the protesters who chant when the police move the detainees into buses.
In March, huge protests took place in the city after the arrest of the opposition mayor of Imomoglu, the main competitor of Turkish President Erdogan.
May 1 each year march led by workers and unions They are held within the framework of international celebrations on work in many countries.
The Taxima area – Istanbul’s heart – was under a dense castle, with police and metal barriers along all roads leading to this area.
The authorities were determined, perhaps this year more than when -to make sure that there were no serious protests on the square, and they had enough riot police to make sure.
The area, usually busy with noisy crowds, looked inanimate, with closed restaurants and shops.
The only way past police was with permission. Several unions were allowed briefly on taxi, which transported red banners and flowers.
Standing before the monument of the republic, which marks the founding of modern Turkey in 1923, one speaker complained about the restrictions they encountered. The trucks with the water canon parked a short distance.
On the roads leading to the square, groups of tourists from time to time passed on foot, dragging suitcases, not knowing where they can go and unable to get to the taxi.
According to the AFP news agency, the area was sealed a few days before May 1.
The student nicknamed Murat said the streets were “blocked … as if it were a state of emergency,” he said AFP.
“We were not put into squares … We were taken from the streets in small groups under torture. This is not the situation we face for the first time. It probably won’t be the last.”
100 people were detained on Wednesday for allegedly planning to protest on the square.
The city authorities said on Thursday that 382 people were arrested for “unauthorized demonstrations”.
Amnesty International’s Legal Group called on Turkey to lift a ban on demonstrations in taxi.
Restrictions “are based on fully false security and public order,” said Dinushika Dissanayake, amnesty specialist.
In her statement, the group called on the officials to respect the right to protest and “not use force against the peaceful participants of the action.”
Erem Imomoglu’s arrest in March summoned mass protests on Istanbul streets, when hundreds of thousands of pro -democratic demonstrators came to support the mayor Istanbul, who is in prison on charges of corruption he denies.
He said his arrest was political, but the government denied it and insisted that the Turkish courts were completely independent.
Since 2019, the mayor is widely regarded as the only politician capable of challenging Erdogan in the 2028 elections. Imomoglu was confirmed by the opposition candidate while he was in custody.
Erdogan has been in power for more than 20 years, first as Prime Minister, and then as a president since 2014. He cannot run again for the presidency after 2028 – unless he changed the Constitution of Turkey.
