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From Mayday 1977 to Mayday 2007: Taksim Square


On Mayday 1977, 500 thousand labourers gathered at Taksim Square in Istanbul. The enthusiasm and the joy of the workers for Mayday were interrupted by the counter-guerrilla forces opening fire on them. 36 workers lost their lives as a result of the gunfire and stampede. In 1979, Taksim Square was banned for demonstrations of workers and labourers. . In 1989, the police attacked once more the workers and labourers who tried to celebrate Mayday at Taksim Square. A young worker, Mehmet Akif Dalci, was shot dead. In 1990 and 1991, the workers, labourers and revolutionary forces tried again to break the ban on the celebration of Mayday.. On the 30th anniversary of the massacre on Mayday 1977, tens of thousands of workers and labourers conquered Taksim Square with the determination to call the counter-guerrilla state to render account, despite all the measures of the state to hinder this by creating an atmosphere of emergency state at the streets of Istanbul, cancelling the most important part of the boat trips between the Anatolian and European parts, limiting the traffic with only one lane, arresting all members of the Organising Committee, conducting a violent state terror and police attacks with gas bombs and arresting hundreds of people.

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