Turkish authorities had released all 576 people detained during Istanbul’s May Day protests by the morning of May 2, according to the Progressive Lawyers Association, bringing an end to a day of large-scale detentions that followed police action around the city on May 1. The claim came from lawyers who had been tracking arrests and offering legal help to those taken into custody.
The evidence packet says police broke up demonstrations with tear gas and detained hundreds of people on Friday. The İstanbul branch of the Progressive Lawyers Association, known as ÇHD, said on X that all detainees had been released by Saturday morning, including union official Başaran Aksu. The İstanbul Governor’s Office put the number of detentions slightly lower, at 575, underscoring the gap that often emerges between initial official counts and lawyer tallies during mass protest operations.
The protests centered on Taksim Square, a politically charged location that authorities have kept closed to rallies since the 2013 wave of anti-government demonstrations. The association said its members were deployed across the city to document detentions and provide assistance to people held by police. Aksu had been among the public voices criticizing the closure of the square before his detention.
May 1 is International Workers’ Day, and the packet says it regularly brings a heavy police presence in Turkey, with a large area in central Istanbul sealed off each year. Trade unions and civil society groups had called the rallies under the slogan “Bread. Peace. Freedom.” That framing shows how the day was not only a labor event but also a broader platform for political demands.
The evidence packet does not report any serious injuries or prolonged detention beyond the initial arrest sweep, and it does not indicate that any of the released protesters faced charges in the immediate aftermath. It also notes that 47 people were detained on April 28 ahead of the planned May Day rallies, with four arrested and nine placed under house arrest.
The release of the 576 detainees appears to have ended the immediate police response, but the confrontation over Taksim Square remained unresolved. The square has become a recurring test of how Turkish authorities handle public assembly, labor mobilization and opposition gatherings. Each May 1, the closure of the area and the scale of the security operation create a familiar pattern of confrontation, detention and legal pushback.
In this case, the lawyers’ account gave the clearest picture of how the sweep ended: quickly, with the detainees released within a day. But the larger dispute over whether rallies can be held at Taksim, and under what conditions, continues to define the political meaning of May Day in Istanbul.
The case also illustrates a recurring feature of protest policing in Turkey: the state’s willingness to contain public gatherings through detention, while lawyers move quickly to document who was held and when they were released. The packet does not show whether any broader legal consequences followed, but it does show that the immediate protest cycle was resolved within a day.
