İSTANBUL - Scores of workers and youth organisations set out for Taksim despite all obstacles. Groups marching to Taksim from different ways, faced police attack. Police took scores under custody.

 

All roads leading to Taksim Square have been closed with barriers since last night, due to the May 1, Day of Unity, Struggle and Solidarity in Istanbul. Along with Taksim Square, the roads leading to Istiklal Street were closed. However, mass organisations and student groups marched to Taksim from different locations.

 

Revolutionary Party members gathered in front of the Osmanbey metro stop of Şişli district and marched towards Taksim Square with the banner "Hope is in socialism, people to power, long live May Day". The police detained nearly a dozen people and handcuffed them behind the back, forcing them in police vehicles.

 

JOURNALISTS DETAINED

 

Mesopotamya Agency (MA) reporter Doğan Kaynak and Jinnews reporter Rozerin Gültekin, who were following the march, were detained along with the workers. The police, who took the phones of the journalists who were put in a police vehicle, released the journalists after a while.

 

Youth Committees, who wanted to march to Taksim despite the obstacles, wanted to march from Beşiktaş, Akaretler to Taksim Square. The students said, “We shout out to the Taksim barricades! Young people will break through those barricades. We will break through those barricades. The young people whose lives you stole will destroy this order”. The police, who prevented the students, detained many students. 

 

'THERE IS A WAY OUT'

 

Members of the Social Freedom Party (TÖP) also wanted to march to Taksim Square, saying "There is a way out". The police blocked the group, including TÖP Term Spokesperson Perihan Koca and detained them. 

 

12 people who wanted to march to Taksim Square from Cumhuriyet Street, one of the side streets of Şişli Harbiye, were detained.