the city of Istanbul barricaded to prevent any gathering on May 1

Turkish police began cordoning off the area around Istanbul’s Taksim Square on Tuesday to prevent any gatherings on May 1 in this place that became the epicenter, in 2013, of a wave of protests against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. High metal barriers have been erected around the square, onto which the famous pedestrian avenue Istiklal leads, noted an AFP journalist.

More than 42,000 police officers will be deployed in Istanbul on Wednesday, warned Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya. “We will not allow terrorist organizations (…) to make May 1 a field of action and propaganda”, he warned. Gatherings have not been authorized for several years in Taksim Square, but trade union and political organizations regularly call on their members to converge there. Several of them called for a march in his direction on Wednesday.

Taksim Square and neighboring Gezi Park, located on the European side of Istanbul, were at the heart of an unprecedented wave of protests in 2013 targeting the government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, then prime minister since 2003. The Party of Justice and Development (AKP, Islamo-conservative) of President Erdogan suffered a debacle in the local elections of March 31, his worst setback in two decades in power.

Istanbul, the country’s main city and its economic capital, remained in the hands of the Republican People’s Party (CHP, social-democrat), the main formation of the Turkish opposition. “Taksim Square is a trauma for the AKP government (…) We will not abandon it”launched Deniz Yücel, vice-president and spokesperson of the CHP, on Monday.