Labor Day celebrations have largely been a contentious issue in Turkey due to the violence plaguing street rallies to mark the day, forcing authorities to ban the gatherings. This time, however, another obstacle stands in the path of workers seeking to convene at squares across the country – the coronavirus pandemic.
A three-day curfew starting on May 1 means labor unions will not be able to hold rallies as usual. Instead, a few representatives from labor unions were allowed to read a press statement in each province by governorates, on the condition of adhering to social distancing. Labor unions leaders also issued video messages on the occasion.
Istanbul's Taksim Square, which has long been at the heart of celebrations but shut down in recent years due to Labor Day riots, has been devoid of even small groups intent on violating the ban on gathering.
Though not on the streets, labor unions announced that they would mark the day today with online gatherings. A metal workers’ union, for instance, urged its members to recite anthems and hang banners on the balconies of their houses.
Since the 1890s, May 1 has been celebrated as International Workers' Day in many countries. In Turkey, the first mass May 1 celebrations occurred in the 1910s during the Ottoman era in events held mainly by cotton, grape and port workers in Istanbul, Izmir and Thessaloniki. It was celebrated in Ankara in 1922 amid close ties with the Soviet Union during the War of Independence and officially celebrated in 1923. From 1925 to 1976, Labor Day celebrations were officially banned, and a new public holiday named Spring and Flower Day was introduced.
In 1977, the first mass Labor Day celebrations in decades took place in Istanbul's Taksim Square, attended by hundreds of thousands of people, but ended tragically when unidentified assailants opened fire on the crowd, leading to the deaths of 36 people amid gunfire and the subsequent stampede. From 1979 on, a ban was introduced on May Day celebrations in Taksim, which caused the square and its surrounding areas to become a clash zone between security forces and mainly left-wing groups each year.
The military regime of Sept. 12, 1980, coup d'etat banned Labor Day celebrations and removed May 1 as a national holiday. They were restored again in 2009, and the square was opened for Labor Day celebrations in 2010. Rallies in 2010 were peaceful, but after the ban was reinstated in 2012, protests again turned violent. Taksim Square remained off-limits to mass rallies for fear of a repeat of the 1977 incident, and riots by supporters of terrorist groups, which exploited the Labor Day celebrations to stage riots in the past.
Turkey’s prominent unions issued statements on the occasion, and naturally, the messages focused on the outbreak and health care workers. Mahmut Arslan, head of Confederation of Turkish Real Trade Unions (HAK-İŞ), one of the biggest unions in the country, said in his statement that they salute health care workers “fighting on the frontline to help people.” He reiterated the union’s demand for better conditions for health care workers. He said they appreciated the government’s raise for additional payments for civil servants in the health care sector but added that the raise should also include more than 200,000 workers in the sector as well.
