VIDEO: Carrying Das Kapital leads to detention in Istanbul on May Day

ISTANBUL

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Expressing opposition to massive marches, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu encouraged individuals to mark May Day in Istanbul with carnations. However, police in the city detained a single woman who brought a book to Taksim Square: Karl Marx’s “Das Kapital.”

“Tomorrow, Taksim will be accessible to any of our citizens who want to come ‘symbolically.’ They should come and lay their carnations and show their respect,” Davutoğlu said at a gathering with highway workers on April 30.

On May 1, only a small group of unionists were allowed into Taksim Square for a moderate remembrance ceremony for the victims of 1977’s May Day, when 34 people were killed.

A single woman, on the other hand, walked past the police checkpoint near Taksim, showing the book “Das Kapital” by Karl Marx. Police officers then briefly followed the woman before forcefully detaining her.



The detention triggered reactions on social media. Several users argued that the footage showed the government wants to prevent not only groups, but also individuals, from reaching the iconic square on the symbolic day. 

“If you say that you will go there with tens of thousands of people to organize a rally, then it should be named as creating chaos, not as a commemoration,” President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said in Ankara on May 1, referring to Taksim Square.