ISTANBUL: Police arrested more than 400 people in Istanbul on Thursday, officials said, amidst a massive show of force to prevent May Day demonstrations in Turkiye’s biggest city.

More than 50,000 police were deployed and key metro, bus and ferry services were shut down as part of the operation. May Day came with the government embroiled in a battle with the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), following the detention of its presidential candidate Ekrem Imamoglu, mayor of Istanbul.

Imamoglu is the biggest political rival of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. More than 400 people were arrested, a day after 100 people were detained for allegedly planning to protest in the central Taksim Square, where demonstrations have been banned since 2013.

“The number of arrests that have been reported to us exceeds 400,” the Istanbul branch of the CHD lawyers group wrote on X. Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said on X that 407 protesters were arrested in Istanbul, while a statement by Istanbul authorities said 52,656 police officers had been deployed in the city.

Several thousand people assembled in sanctioned protests called by unions on the Asian side of the city. “They blocked all the streets, as if it’s a state of emergency,” a student named Murat, who did not want to give his last name, said.

Published in Dawn, May 2nd, 2025