Image by Arzu Geybullayeva, created using Canva Pro elements.
Across Turkey, this year’s May Day was once again marked by heavy police presence and barricades as well as detentions as tens of thousands of workers and activists attempted to mark International Workers’ Day.
Journalists reporting from Istanbul, noted heavy police intervention against demonstrators wanting to march to Taksim Square in the city. The square was sealed off to pedestrians, and all transportation routes were shut down. Even in designated demonstration locations, such as Istanbul's Kadikoy and Kartal districts, the cancellation of transportation made those areas hard to get to. Hundreds of people were detained, while scores were rounded up ahead of the day for making calls to join the demonstrations scheduled for May 1.
Despite the extraordinary restrictions imposed on main roads, public transportation and sea transportation in Istanbul, tens of thousands of people gathered at Kadıköy İskele Square for May Day celebrations. “A Turkey where we are not condemned to live on minimum wage, where strikes are not banned and where democratic rights can be freely exercised is possible,” read the joint statement issued on behalf of the unions celebrating May Day in Kadıköy. “A life where we do not die while working, where we do not lose our health, where we work for 8 hours, rest for 8 hours and live for 8 hours is possible. A country where our right to retirement is not usurped and pensioners can live humanely is possible.”
Taksim, the forbidden square
Taksim Square in the heart of Istanbul is considered a powerful symbol of labour rights and protest culture. It is also an ideological battleground among governments that have taken leadership in the country over the decades. In 1977, at least 34 people were killed during a May Day rally there, an event widely remembered as the “Taksim Massacre” or “Bloody May 1.”
Every year, activists and trade unions request permission to rally in Taksim on May 1, and every year they are met with rejection. This year was no exception. The Istanbul Governor's Office declared that Taksim was off-limits, leading to the closure of dozens of roads, public transportation lines, and ferry services — a lockdown strategy that has become a grim May Day routine in the country. The last times May Day demonstrations were officially allowed in Taksim were 2010, 2011, and 2012, during a brief thaw in the government’s approach to dissent.
Since 2013, when the square became the epicenter of the “Gezi Park” protests, authorities have restricted public gatherings there, citing “security concerns” and public order.
This year, access to Taksim was effectively sealed off as early as 5 a.m., and even the surrounding neighborhoods like Şişli and Beyoğlu saw heavy police deployment. Those attempting to march to the square, including members of opposition parties, labor unions, and student groups, were intercepted, detained, or pushed back by force.
Squares cannot be closed to the public. Everyone has the right to organize unarmed and nonviolent meetings and demonstrations without prior permission. Istanbul, May 1, 2025. Photograph: Zeynep Kuray.
The Istanbul governor's office said over 50,ooo police officers were deployed on May 1. The office later said 384 people were detained for taking part in an unauthorised demonstration. “Unauthorized demonstration” was, however, a misleading term according to reporting by Bianet. According to Article 34 of the constitution, “Everyone has the right to organise unarmed meetings and demonstrations without prior permission.”
The concept of “unauthorised demonstration” is also a misleading and inaccurate expression within the framework of the constitution and laws, and according to the decisions of the Constitutional Court, peaceful meetings that do not threaten public order should be protected, even if the authorities are not notified. Similarly, according to Law No. 2911 on Meetings and Demonstrations, although organizers of demonstrations have the obligation to notify the local authorities, failure to do so does not mean that the demonstration is prohibited, reported the Bianet newsroom.
Last year, police detained more than 200 people who attempted to march to Taksim. On April 30, Amnesty International’s deputy regional director for Europe, Dinushika Dissanayake, said, “The restrictions on May Day celebrations in Taksim Square are based on entirely spurious security and public order grounds and fly in the face of the 2023 Constitutional Court ruling. The restrictions must be urgently lifted.”
A bleak picture for workers
Beyond the question of public assembly, May 1 serves as a painful reminder of the state of labor rights in Turkey. According to the Worker Health and Work Safety Council (İSİG), a local council that fights for a healthy and safe life and working conditions, a total of 1,894 workers died in Turkey in 2024. A year prior, the network reported 1,932 deaths it was able to document. As of March 2025, that number has already reached 145 for the year so far. A quick look at the data collected by the network, which consists of workers from diverse professions and industries and their families, in the last decade, the annual numbers never fell below 1,000 deaths, sometimes reaching 2,000 or more. Many of these deaths, labor advocates argue, were entirely preventable and stem from a lack of enforcement of safety standards and regulatory oversight.
In a country where precarious and informal labor is widespread, such fatal accidents are tragically common. Child labor, too, continues to plague the labor market. A report from the Education and Science Workers’ Union (Eğitim-İş) found that over 869,000 children are working in Turkey, with over 500,000 enrolled in vocational apprenticeship programs (MESEM) that effectively function as labor pipelines rather than educational institutions.
Turkey lacks a comprehensive social protection framework for its workforce. Job security, union rights, and social benefits remain elusive for millions, particularly for seasonal, migrant, and undocumented workers. For many, laboring under exploitative conditions is not a matter of choice but of survival.
Employment myths and misrepresentations
Official statistics also offer a distorted picture. In her recent reporting, journalist Ayça Örer, shows discrepancies in data offered by the state statistical institution and workers’ unions. Örer writes that while the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) reports an official employment rate in the last quarter of 2024 of 49.6 percent, the Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions of Turkey (DİSK) challenges this narrative, focusing on the definitions of (un)employment used in Turkey.
While TÜİK reports a jobless rate of around 9 percent, DİSK and other independent labor platforms argue that the broadly defined unemployment rate, which includes discouraged job seekers, underemployed individuals, and those available to work but not actively searching, was 28.2 percent as at December 2024. The situation is particularly dire for young women, where broad unemployment stands at 46.7 percent, and only 1 in 5 women is engaged in full-time, registered employment, reported Örer.
For many, May Day is just a regular work day, including for Veysel and Sefer, scrap workers, who spoke to Örer. “Every day, we crush metal boxes, sort paper, and clean up the city's trash. We're like Istanbul’s ants — no one sees us, but we carry the filth away.” Sefer adds, “People live in the ruins of old buildings because they can't afford even a shared room anymore. Some earn 100 liras a day, and pay 20,000 liras a month for a place to sleep.”
Such voices rarely reach the mainstream discourse but are integral to understanding the broader picture of labor in Turkey — one of invisibility, exploitation, and resilience.
May 1st this year was rainy and chilly. But it did not stop people from taking part in demonstrations. This revealed not only the strength of Turkey's workers but also the extent of the state’s resistance to meaningful reform, whether in labor rights or democratic freedoms. As poverty deepens, employment shrinks, and protections erode, the annual struggle for both visibility and dignity continues.
And so does the march, come rain or riot police.
