US EditionTürkiye: Ban on May Day celebrations in Istanbul’s Taksim Square must be lifted
- Turkish officials prohibited gatherings to mark May 1 at Taksim Square in Istanbul in 2025 and conducted preemptive police raids throughout the city, detaining approximately 100 individuals suspected of planning unauthorized protests.
- The ban follows a decade-long restriction on protests in Taksim Square since 2013, justified by officials on security grounds despite a 2023 Constitutional Court ruling declaring such bans violations of freedom of assembly.
- Detained individuals included members of banned leftist groups, labor unions, and activists, with reports of police violence during arrests and raids on homes including the Istanbul provincial representative of DEV Tekstil union.
- Amnesty International's Deputy Regional Director Dinushika Dissanayake called the ban 'based on spurious security and public order grounds' and urged authorities to urgently lift restrictions to allow peaceful assembly in line with legal rulings.
- The ban and arrests intensified political tensions, with opposition groups demanding access to Taksim Square and labor unions planning gatherings elsewhere, while the government's tight control signals ongoing challenges to protest rights in Turkey.
14 Articles
14 Articles
Rights group urge Türkiye to lift ban on May Day demonstrations
Amnesty International called for Turkish authorities to lift the ban on May Day (also called Labor Day) gatherings in Istanbul’s Taksim Square on Wednesday. Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for Europe, Dinushika Dissanayake, said the ban was “based on entirely spurious security and public order grounds and fly in the face of the 2023 Constitutional Court ruling. The restrictions must be urgently lifted”. Amnesty International hol…
Turkey must lift ban on May 1 demos in Istanbul’s Taksim Square
Turkey must lift its "spurious" ban on May Day demonstrations in Istanbul's Taksim Square, Amnesty International said Wednesday after police detained around 100 people who allegedly planning to protest there. "The restrictions on May Day celebrations in Taksim Square are based on entirely spurious security and public order grounds and... must be urgently lifted," said Dinushika Dissanayake, Amnesty's deputy regional director for Europe in a stat…
Türkiye: Ban on May Day celebrations in Istanbul’s Taksim Square must be lifted
The Turkish authorities must lift all restrictions on a planned May Day solidarity demonstration in Istanbul’s Taksim Square and allow people to gather peacefully in accordance with a ruling by Türkiye’s Constitutional Court, Amnesty International said. The organization is also calling on law enforcement officials to respect, protect and facilitate people’s right to peaceful assembly and not use force against peaceful protesters. Some trade unio…
Tens of thousands march in Turkey on May Day - Workers Revolutionary Party
DOZENS of trade unions, youth groups, and resistance movements in Turkey marched on Istanbul’s iconic Taksim Square on May Day, in open defiance of both a government ban, and the decision by the country’s largest labour confederations to gather in Kadiköy Square instead. More than 25 organisations – including independent unions, leftist political parties and […]
May Day blockade in Taksim: Police barriers erected, roads closed
Taksim Square in Istanbul's central Beyoğlu district has been cordoned off by police in the run-up to Workers' Day on 1 May. All access routes have been closed off with metal barriers. As every year, there is a ban on demonstrations in the square where a massacre took place on 1 May 1977. The Confederation of Revolutionary Trade Unions (DISK), the Confederation of Public Employees' Trade Unions (KESK), the Union of Chambers of Turkish Engineers …
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