site.btaOver 240,000 Demonstrate on May Day in Turkiye, Many Arrested

A total of 217 people were arrested in Istanbul in Wednesday's Labour Day demonstrations and seven others were detained elsewhere in the country, Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya told Turkish media.

In the clashes that broke out between demonstrators and police officers, there were injuries on both sides. 

According to Yerlikaya, about 241,000 people participated in a total of 210 rallies, marches and demonstrations that took place in 78 (out of 81) districts of the country.

Most demonstrations took place in Istanbul. Extremely strict measures were introduced in the megalopolis. The central Taksim Square was blocked and many arteries of public transport were cut off.

Using tear gas and rubber bullets, police tried to repel demonstrators heading to Taksim for an unauthorised demonstration. Riots broke out, 217 people were arrested and many were injured.

Leader of the country's main opposition force, the Republican People's Party, Ozgur Ozel said that "the police have literally erected a Chinese wall just to prevent the residents of Istanbul from celebrating May Day freely and without bans," the T24 news agency reported.

According to the website, Ozel will raise the issue of the bans and arrests in Istanbul with President Erdogan, with whom he is scheduled to hold talks on Thursday.

More than 42,000 police were mobilized in Istanbul and deployed in a total of 264 points of the megalopolis to prevent demonstrations in the city centre.

At a crowded rally in the city of Bursa, President of the Confederation of Turkish Trade Unions Ergun Atalay called on the government to immediately adjust workers' wages, benefits and tax rates, Haberler reports.

May Day in Turkiye is celebrated as a Labour and Workers' Solidarity Day, but every year it is accompanied by bans by the authorities on mass demonstrations and celebrations, mostly in Istanbul's Taksim Square, imposed for security reasons.