(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Turkish police yesterday used water cannon and tear gas to disperse May Day protesters in Istanbul as tens of thousands of labour activists turned out to defend their rights at a time of austerity.
Turkish police and protesters engaged in pitched battles in some districts of Istanbul.
Turkish police had blocked all vehicle access and cut public transport to prevent protests on Taksim Square in the centre of Istanbul, the traditional focus for demonstrations in the country's largest city.
Police moved in on the protesters in the Besiktas district close to the shores of the Bosphorus as they tried to head towards the square, using water cannon trucks and spraying tear gas, an AFP correspondent said.
Istanbul governor Vali Sahin said that 203 people had been arrested, and six police and 18 protesters had been wounded in a day of clashes around Istanbul.
This is the first May Day in Turkey, a national holiday in the country, to be marked after parliament passed a controversial security bill this year giving the police greater powers to crack down on protests.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's administration - shaken by weeks of deadly anti-government protests in May-June 2013 centred on Taksim Square - is hugely nervous about public demonstrations ahead of June 7 legislative elections. "I find that this insistance on (protests in) Taksim is wrong. Having a meeting in Taksim means basically paralysing all Istanbul," Erdogan said in a speech in Ankara.
He also lashed out at foreign media for focusing on unrest in Turkey to "smear" the country while ignoring the violence in Baltimore in the United States. "Not a single word about the recent events in America. No criticism at all," he fumed.
In the Istanbul district of Okmeydani, known as a hub for the far-left, protesters engaged in ferocious clashes with police, throwing stones and Molotov cocktails.
A small group of a few dozen Communist protesters who tried to protest in the centre of Taksim Square were immediately surrounded by police who roughly arrested several people.
Taksim Square has been a flashpoint for clashes on Labour Day since dozens of people were killed there on May 1, 1977 when modern Turkey was going through one of its most turbulent periods.
"In 1977 there was a massacre. We simply want to be there (on Taksim) to commemorate that date. We cannot do it any other way, it is too symbolic for us," Umar Karatepe, a leader of the DISK labour confederation, said. Turkish media said 20,000 police had been deployed in Istanbul backed up by 62 water cannon trucks.
The blocking of traffic left some locals with long walks to carry out their business while travellers carrying heavy luggage were stranded as they sought a ride to the airport. In an apparent bid to discourage protests, the city's main metro line was halted well before Taksim and services on the city tram service were stopping halfway.
Taksim Square, usually thronged with thousands of people in the day, was deserted save for police, journalists and plain clothes security agents.
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