VIDEO: Policeman punches journalist on May Day

AKSARAY

Turkish authorities have launched a probe into a policeman who was filmed while punching a journalist during a May Day demonstration.

Members of the Kurdish problem-focused Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) in the Central Anatolian province of Aksaray and a group shouting Turkish nationalist slogans started to argue during the demonstration on May 1, according to Doğan News Agency. Meanwhile, Deputy Police Chief Ömer Parıltı punched a journalist, who was trying to film the dispute, the report said. Footage also shows that Parıltı used expletives targeting the journalist during the episode.



Aksaray Provincial Police Directorate announced May 2 that it launched an administrative investigation into Parıltı's conduct, describing the incident as "friction" between police and journalists.

Istanbul Governorate announced late May 1 that 203 people have been detained and 24 people, including 6 police officers, were injured during the tense May Day demonstrations throughout the city.

The main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) deputy Sezgin Tanrıkulu, on the other hand, filed a parliamentary question, asking Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu the total number of May Day detentions in Turkey.

Tanrıkulu also asked why a group of men wearing civilian clothes were not detained by police after they attacked another group with clubs in the Fulya neighborhood of Istanbul on May 1.

The attacked group was prevented from marching to Taksim by police, according to Turkish media reports.