Turkey police fire tear gas and plastic bullets at protesters in Istanbul

Police arrest demonstrators as they march during May Day in Istanbul on May 1, 2017. Lefteris Pitarakis / AP Photo

ISTANBUL // Turkish police on Monday fired tear gas and plastic bullets at protesters seeking to march to Istanbul’s Taksim Square to celebrate May Day, in defiance of an official ban.

The Istanbul governor’s office claimed some illegal groups had tried to rally around Taksim square and elsewhere in the city by using May Day celebrations as a “pretext”, adding that a total of 207 people had been detained.

One citizen was killed in an accident, the office added, when a Tom, an armoured water cannon truck designed for riot control, was doing manouvering.

In the district of Gayrettepe, on the European side of Istanbul, police tried to stop around 200 protesters who wanted to walk to the famous Taksim square in spite of the ban by city authorities.

The protesters – made up of left-wing groups – unfurled anti-government banners against the result of the April 16 referendum, which handed president Recep Tayyip Erdogan expanded powers.

“Long live May Day, no to dictator!” the banners read.

Turkish authorities had imposed a ban on any demonstration at Taksim square, with police sealing off the area with barricades and halting traffic.

Among those detained were two women who attempted to penetrate the ban and unfurl banners at the square, the private Dogan news agency reported.

Police also seized 40 Molotov cocktails, 17 hand grenades, 176 fireworks and seven masks.

Some 30,000 police were on duty in Istanbul alone, with the governor’s office urging citizens not to heed calls for protests in non-official areas.

Police checked tourists and citizens passing through Taksim and all streets leading to the square were cordoned off with iron barricades.

Metro lines did not stop at Taksim square, which was a rallying ground for May Day celebrations until 1977, when at least 34 people were killed during demonstrations.

Authorities opened up the square for celebrations in 2010 but it was shut down again after it played host to anti-government protests in 2013, targeting Mr Erdogan, the then prime minister.

Demonstrator Yunus Ozgur said he wanted to march to Taksim square to protest “irregularities” during the referendum.

“We are frustrated,” he said. “Taksim has a political meaning. They (the authorities) are scared of this. Taksim is ours.”

The arrests came as several thousand people and unions attended celebrations in an officially sanctioned May Day rally in Istanbul’s Bakirkoy district, near the international airport on the city’s western side.

In Ankara, meanwhile, at least 6,000 people demonstrated for May Day and against the referendum result, holding large letters spelling out “Hayir” meaning “No” in Turkish.

* Agence France-Presse