(1 May 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Istanbul – 1 May 2025
1. Various of protesters approaching police barricade at Taksim Square and riot police detaining protesters
2. Various of group being detained by police and ushered onto a bus
3. Various of police
4. Various of protesters chanting, approaching police barricade at Taksim Square and riot police detaining protesters
5. Various of police bus pulling away
STORYLINE:
Hundreds of roads were closed and public transport services cancelled in Turkey’s largest city Istanbul as police prepared for May 1 demonstrations focusing on the imprisonment of the city’s opposition mayor.
The jailing of Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu in March led to the largest nationwide protests the country has seen in more than a decade and Thursday’s public holiday offered the prospect of renewed anti-government displays.
Two rallies were due to be held by the main opposition party and trade unions on the city’s Asian side.
The authorities, however, seemed to concentrate much of their efforts on the European shore, specifically the area around Taksim Square, the traditional rallying point for May 1 demonstrations.
A law association said that more than 200 protesters were arrested before midday Thursday near Taksim Square, including lawyers trying to follow the detentions.
Riot police apprehended some 35 members of the left-wing People’s Liberation Party who tried to break through the barriers.
In recent years, protests have been banned in the square, which was the center of 2013 protests across the country that challenged the government of then-Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, now Turkey’s president.
“Calls to go to Taksim are more than just a call for celebration; they are clearly provocative attempts aimed at creating an environment of conflict with the security forces,” Davut Gul, the government-appointed governor of Istanbul, wrote on X Wednesday evening.
Across the city, public transport services were cancelled and metro stations shuttered as thousands of police manned steel barricades.
Bridges across the Golden Horn were sealed off and even cross-Bosphorus ferries suspended.
Pro-opposition Halk TV reported the arrest of protesters in Sisli, a district just north of Taksim Square, on Thursday morning. Dozens of students, political activists and trades’ union officials were detained Tuesday and Wednesday in Istanbul, the capital Ankara and Izmir, Turkey’s third-largest city.
“The days when prohibitions and oppression will end are very close. We are close to the day when we will celebrate May 1 with millions of people together in Taksim with enthusiasm,” Imamoglu, who is accused of graft and terrorism offenses many consider politically motivated, posted on X from prison.
AP video by Mehmet Guzel
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