Source: International Business Times
Taksim Square is a place of 'huge symbolic significance for the Turkish trade union and workers movements', Amnesty said AFP Istanbul authorities on Wednesday closed metro trains, buses and Bosphorous ferries, paralysing Turkey's biggest city in a bid to prevent May Day demonstrations. Ahead of the holiday, police arrested 100 people allegedly planning to protest on Istanbul's central Taksim Square, where demonstrations have been banned since 2013. The government is also embroiled in a showdown with the main opposition Republican People's Party (CPH) since the detention of its presidential candidate Ekrem Imamoglu, the mayor of Istanbul and the biggest political rival of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
