May 1 in Taksim after 32 years

May 1 Labor Day which has not been celebrated in Taksim Square since 1978 is being celebrated in the square today.

Labor unions will gather at Taksim Square in Istanbul today for the first time since 1978. Square, which was closed to celebrations one year after 1977 when 34 people died, is opened to workers today. Members of several labor unions will celebrate Labor Day in Taksim. Nearly 200,000 are expected to gather in the square.

Members of labor unions began celebrations at 10:00 a.m. and will end at 4:00 p.m. Workers will raise their voices against violation of their rights and chant their demands. Many roads around Taksim will be closed to traffic due to celebrations.

Taksim Square had been declared off-limits since the bloodshed during a May Day rally there in 1977 when gunmen, believed to be far-right militants aided by members of the intelligence services, fired on a peaceful crowd, triggering mass panic.

The deaths came at a time of severe political tensions and street violence between leftist and rightist militants in Turkey, which culminated in a military coup in 1980.

In the past, trade unions have tried to hold rallies at Taksim Square in defiance of the ban, but met with a heavy police crackdown that left dozens injured and hundreds in detention.

The government’s decision to fully open the square to May day celebrations comes after Parliament reinstated May Day as a national holiday in 2009 and allowed a limited group of union leaders and workers into Taksim on May 1 to commemorate the 1977 bloodshed.

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