Turkish police detained at least 92 people in coordinated raids across multiple cities on Tuesday, targeting activists and organisers who called for Labour Day demonstrations in İstanbul’s Taksim Square, which authorities have banned.
The arrests follow an investigation launched by the İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, which issued 108 detention warrants against individuals accused of promoting unauthorised gatherings. Homes were raided in the early morning hours in İstanbul, Ankara, Konya and Eskişehir, with student activists and prominent left-wing figures among those taken into custody.
Those detained include Ahmet Uçar, co-chair of the BEKSAV cultural centre; Songül Yücel, editor-in-chief of Önsöz magazine; members of the Socialist Party of the Oppressed (ESP); and contributors to various progressive and environmental collectives. Police also arrested two members of the leftist folk music group Grup Yorum.
Labour and professional associations including the Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions (DİSK) and the Turkish Medical Association (TTB) had earlier announced they would mark 1 May in the Kadıköy district, rather than Taksim. However, several grassroots and socialist groups called for defying the ban, insisting on the symbolic significance of Taksim, where state violence marred previous commemorations.
Pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy (DEM) Party co-chair Tuncer Bakırhan condemned the raids, saying the detentions were aimed at “silencing opposition and criminalising the demand for equality and freedom.” The Peoples’ Democratic Congress (HDK) also denounced the police operations, asking, “Why this fear? Why this panic?”
No official statement has been made regarding reports of excessive police force during the arrests, nor on the students detained in Ankara and Eskişehir.
Human rights advocates and opposition parties say the government is using public order laws to restrict political expression ahead of a major day of international workers’ solidarity.
