Pitched battle in Istanbul in the demonstration on May 1

At least 139 people have been arrested and 58 were injured in crashes caused Thursday May 1 in Istanbul during the attempts of several unions in the iconic Taksim Square, which had previously been closed by the authorities.

“According to our information, until now there are 139 detainees in Istanbul. I am Afraid that this figure will increase,” Mehmet Soganci, TMMOB president of the union representing architects and engineers  and one of the four major convenor of the marches towards Taksim told Efe by telephone.

Soganci said they were still gathering data from hospitals to establish the number of casualties, but said that could be a hundred and I enter them there at least one journalist.

According to the association of jurists CHD, some 58 people have been injured. The first clashes were recorded at 0530 GMT both the Sisli district of Besiktas about two kilometers from Taksim, where security forces blocked the unions marches with armored.

About eight o’clock in the morning  clashes were already extended to 14 different parts of the city, according to the TV station Yol.

All access to the plaza were closed by metal fences. About noon, the fighting subsided and the police began dismantling the barricades that had been erected to stop protest groups in the artery of Besiktas, although some points still recorded sporadic clashes with youths armed with slingshots and throwing cobblestones.

The police, meanwhile, used water cannons, tear gas and rubber bullets against protesters.

The four founding organizations recognized that the heavy police deployment has made it impossible to reach the goal of Taksim and denounced the attitude of the Executive.

Taksim addition, virtually all of the city center is surrounded by heavy police cordons and road traffic has been disrupted. Even pedestrian traffic was reduced to almost zero, as is usually one of the liveliest areas in Istanbul, especially on holidays.

Istanbul Governor Hüseyin Avni Mutlu, warned Wednesday that he would prevent any attempt to rally in Taksim, the risk of ” provocations” were produced, while several large unions and federations of doctors and architects announced their decision marching toward the square, a symbol of the workers’ struggle and protest against the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

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Posted by Khalil Khan on May 3 2014. Filed under World. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.