The Istanbul Police Department announced on that many areas of Istanbul's European side, including the Taksim Square, have been closed to traffic due to security concerns on the second anniversary of the Gezi Park protests. It was announced on Sunday that the Taksim, Şişhane and Osmanbey metro stations along the M2 Yenikapı-Hacıosman metro line, as well as the Kabataş-Taksim funicular railway line have been closed. Almost all main roads in the historic peninsula of Istanbul and Beyoğlu, Beşiktaş and Şişli districts have been closed to traffic after 09:00 a.m. on Sunday.Due to the celebration ceremony held in Yenikapı Square to commemorate the conquest of Istanbul and the pro-Kurdish Peoples's Democratic Party's (HDP) election rally in Kazlıçeşme Square, many main roads in Bakırköy, Zeytinburnu and Fatih distrcits had also remained closed on Saturday.Two years after the violent riots, groups that pioneered the infamous Gezi Park protests in Istanbul pledged to mark the anniversary at the park on Sunday, the day that the initially peaceful protests turned violent.The Gezi Park protests were initially a peaceful demonstration conducted by a small number of activists opposing the redevelopment of the park for reconstruction of an Ottoman-era building to be a shopping mall. Their anger over plans to fell trees in the park that was long denied by authorities, quickly found support among environmentalists. Dozens of people camped out at the park to stop bulldozers from demolishing a retaining wall. Police intervened to clear the park, but things got out of hand when a police chief reportedly ordered the burning of the activists' tents. Under the pretext of protesting police brutality, several marginal groups quickly hijacked the protests, which turned into violent riots by June in Istanbul and the rest of the country. Eight people were killed in the subsequent violence that saw rioters armed with Molotov cocktails and stones clashing with the police. Supporters of terrorist organizations, including the PKK and the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C) joined the rallies and vandalized police cars and businesses in and around Taksim. Amid efforts to reflect the riots as simply protests against the cutting down of trees at the park, it was soon revealed that the incidents were a mass movement against the government. Summing up the purpose of the riots, Mehmet Ali Alabora, an actor who supported them, tweeted that it was "not about Gezi Park."Another call to mark the anniversary at Gezi Park last year failed to drum up support. A small group of protesters left flowers in the park and dispersed. However, rioters affiliated with terrorist organizations gathered in other districts of Istanbul and clashed with police.