Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Istanbul's Shameful May Day

Michael Dickinson | 04.05.2013 20:31 | Policing | Workers' Movements

"These people did not deserve tear gas, they are the workers of this country. No other country threw tear gas at workers; they celebrated May Day in peace. I condemn this attack, this state terror against the workers.”




I was walking through the streets of Istanbul. Smoke and tear-gas bombs were exploding everywhere and people were running, pursued by police in riot gear. At a street corner I came across a street-vendor selling Turkish sweets and stopped to speak to him. Finding it difficult to hear what he was saying, I leaned closer, putting my ear near his mouth. Suddenly someone grabbed him from behind and he fell at my feet, his throat slit open. Turning, I saw a dark-haired young woman in a purple dress muttering to herself, a bloody butcher’s knife in her hand. Then I woke up.

I lay for a while analysing my dream. It was May the first - International Workers’ Day. The mayhem in the streets was obviously inspired by my fear of what would happen that day in the centre of Istanbul. The Turkish Prime Minister, Tayyip Erdogan and the Governor of the city, Hüseyin Avni Mutlu, had stipulated that owing to construction work to pedestrianise the area, no celebrations of May Day would be permitted in Istanbul’s famous Taksim Square, despite major unions’ call for workers to congregate there. Mutlu said roads leading to Taksim would be out of service on May Day and that some 3,000 police would be brought in to provide security and prevent groups from marching to the square.

“We are saying our last word here; a rally will definitely not be allowed,” he said, although a short wreath-laying ceremony would be permitted in the square to commemorate the dozens of demonstrators massacred by suspected right-wing extremist snipers at a rally on May Day in 1977. Since that day rallies had been banned in the square until the government permitted them again in 2010.

However, the Confederation of Public Sector Trade Unions (KESK) and the Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions (DİSK), dismissing the intransigence of the government, announced that they would hit the streets in an attempt to reach Taksim from the nearby districts of Sisli and Besiktas.

“Some unions are doing their best to turn May Day into a day of tension and clashes,” Prime Minister Erdogan said. Leader of the opposition CHP party, Oguz Kaan, said that members would also participate in the rally.

“We will carry lemons so that if police use tear gas we will be able to help people. We hope this won't be necessary," he said. (Lemon juice helps to alleviate the burning effect of the gas on the eyes.)

As for the young woman ith the butcher’s knife in my dream, I guessed that she was a result of the darkly disturbing film ‘Stoker’ which I had watched in the cinema a couple of nights earlier.

I got up and performed my morning yoga ritual, ate my muesli breakfast, went to the toilet and had a wash, then sat on my little balcony overlooking the rooftops and narrow lanes of the run-down area of Tarlabasi where I live, with a coffee and a roll-up, watching the toing and froing of the many seagulls, swallows, crows, pigeons, doves and sparrows that populate the area, some still going about their nest-building.

Then I went back inside and online with my laptop. The mayhem I had seen in my dream had begun in earnest.

I learned that police, after insisting that the gathering was illegal and the group should disperse, had begun battling with crowds early in the morning with water cannon and tear gas in a bid to keep thousands of Turkish and Kurdish workers, trade unionists and other political groups away from Taksim Square. A group of 30 feminists, waving violet flags and shouting "all together against fascism," was pushed back by police firing tear gas cannisters.

Citizens affected by the gas fled to apartments, but the thick clouds affected even those staying at home with windows closed. Even police officers and reporters using gas masks were affected by the immense quantities of gas used. Protestors built makeshift barricades using garbage containers and any other materials they could find on the streets, and some demonstrators responded by throwing stones and fireworks at the police. At least three protestors and a reporter had been injured during the crackdown and hospitalized. After being dispersed, demonstrators continued their attempts to gather again in the back alleys of Sisli, turning them into small war zones.

And then suddenly I was in the war zone myself. “PAT! PAT! PAT! PAT!” The almost constant nearby sound of police firing tear gas guns lured me back out onto the balcony, where smoke and vapour rose from some of the narrow streets, a helicopter roared and hovered overhead, brave people in small groups were marching and chanting and running from police attacks.

Soon it was lunchtime and I was hungry. It was time to go out and eat at the nearby cheap lokanta where I usually dine. The way was blocked by a police cordon, and I was instructed to take an alternative route. I crossed the usually busy highway, now carless and lined with metal mesh barriers, and managed to get to the restaurant. On the way police were everywhere, wearing protective armour and wielding long heavy black batons. While I ate I watched scenes of the chaos on the TV news, struck by one image of a young male protestor spreadeagled faceupward on the ground, unconscious or dead.

I decided to see if I could manage to get on to Istiklal Caddessi, the main pedestrian avenue that leads to Taksim Square, and maybe even the square itself. All the side streets along the way were blocked by the metal fences, but I headed for the trolley station (not operating) at Tunel, and managed to find myself on the usually busy, bustling thoroughfare, now empty apart from a few groups of bemused tourists and hundreds of police, dressed in black, some with fluorecent yellow jackets, all with the dangerous looking batons, most of them loitering in chatting groups or lolling in shop doorways, drinking glasses of tea.

I headed up towards Taksim trying to stay calm and look as inconspicuous as possible. Almost all the shops, restaurants, cafes and cinemas were closed and shuttered, but one ice cream shop was open and I bought a cone (banana and chocolate), and licked it as I progressed, aiding my guise of an innocent tourist. I saw a real tourist taking a picture of the deserted street and I followed suit with my cellphone, the contrast with the usual crowded river of pedestrians so incredible. It amused me to think of the huge amount of commercial trade that had been lost for the day, due to the government’s decision to ban the May Day meeting in Taksim.

Eventally the square was in sight, fenced off by the tall mesh fences, but there was a gap surrounded by police through which I saw one or two people passing through. I decided to risk it, and wow! I managed to walk through without question. There I was in the centre, the goal that thousands had been fighting to reach that day. I walked to the Ataturk memorial statue in the middle. There was no-one there but a cameraman and a female headscarfed reporter with a microphone. As I walked around the statue I heard her give her report.

“Taksim Square in central Istanbul is usually filled with hundreds of thousands of people, but today, May the first, it’s like a ghost town.”

My mission completed, I decided to try to go back home by another route, but the whole square and the roads off were blocked by barriers, so I had to return the way I had come. I succeeded without being stopped or questioned, but at one point I noticed a policeman step out and take a picture of me. At least he wasn’t firing a tear gas cannister.

Thousands of tear gas capsules were fired to stop demonstrators trying to march to Taksim Square on May Day. Various types were used - but none of it was produced locally. Capsules collected in Şişli district, which witnessed the fiercest clashes between police and demonstrators, were all imported. One fired with a gun was American made, while a similar one was from Brazil. A handgrenade-like capsule was produced in South Korea. This means that every year millions of dollars of Turkish taxpayers’ money is spent on importing tear gas.

The chairman of the trade union DİSK, Kani Beko, said "These people did not deserve tear gas, they are the workers of this country. No other country threw tear gas at workers; they celebrated May Day in peace. Many of our friends have been hospitalized. I condemn this attack, this state terror against the workers.”

Şişli Mayor Mustafa Sarıgül said the tough measures, which included a lockdown on most transportation in the city, had produced “civilian martial law.”

But that’s what you get when you defy the wishes of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the all powerful Sultan – I mean, Prime Minister - of Turkey.


Michael Dickinson
- Homepage: http://yabanji.tripod.com/

Comments

Display the following comment

  1. Awful article — Dustbin of History Reloaded
Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech