Dozens of people were arrested in Istanbul on the sidelines of the May Day celebrations where scuffles between police and demonstrators are reported.
According to a statement from the governor's office, 164 people were arrested after organizing "an unauthorized demonstration" and refusing to disperse despite police warnings in Taksim Square, the epicenter of anti-government protests in 2013, closed to traffic and where parades are prohibited.
The images transmitted by the AFP show the clashes between the police in riot gear, lined up in front of the barriers of the square to prevent the rallies, and the demonstrators: some of them were forcibly blocked to the ground before being loaded into a car of the police and taken to the station.
Elsewhere, several thousand people peacefully joined the official demonstration by trade unions and professional organizations, which was authorized away from Taksim Square in a neighborhood on the Asian side of Istanbul.