May Day 1977 Losses Commemorated in Taksim

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The people who lost their lives at the Workers' Day celebrations in 1977 in İstanbul's Taksim area were commemorated over the weekend.

On May 1, 1977, hundreds of thousands of people gathered on the Taksim Square in İstanbul. Some perpetrators opened fire on the crowd, which lead to a stampede as many people run to the downhill street named Kazancı Yokuşu, the nearest exit from the square. A total of 41 people lost their lives in the massacre.

On Saturday (April 27), the 78ers Initiative, the Labor Party (EMEP), the Laborist Movement Party (EHP), the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), the Socialist Re-Establishment Party (SYKP), and the Greens and the Left Party of the Future held an event at the Kazancı Yokuşu.

Participants showed a banner that says, "Taksim Square is the are for May 1," and the photographs of the people who lost their lives.

"Struggle of the whole society"

78ers Initiative Executive Committee member Yunus Bircan read a press statement which briefly said the following:

"May 1 is a day of continuous struggle and solidarity which began with the struggle for the eight-hour workdays and came to this day from generation to generation at the expense of big costs. We are all influenced by, get our self-confidence from and broaden our horizon because of this struggle. Because this is the struggle of the whole society."

The demonstrators then left cloves on the Kazancı Yokuşu, read the names of the 34 people who died there, and sang the May 1 march.

"Shoulder to shoulder against fascism"

People gathered at the Kazancı Yokuşu upon a call by the organizations who form the May 1 Organization Committee, the Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions of Turkey (DİSK), Confederation of Public Employees Trade Unions (KESK), the Union of Chambers of Turkish Engineers and Architects (TMMOB), and the Turkish Medical Association (TTB).

Marching from the Taksim Square to the Kazancı Yokuşu, people showed a banner that reads "Long live May 1," and chanted slogans, "Long live May 1", "Everywhere is Taksim, everywhere is resistance", "Revolutionary martyrs are immortal", "Long live our organized struggle", "Shoulder to shoulder against fascism."

DİSK Chairperson Arzu Çerkezoğlu, KESK Co-Chairperson Aysun Gezen, TMMOB Chairperson Emin Koramaz, TTB Central Committee Chair Sinan Adıyaman, Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) MPs Züleyha Gülüm, Oya Ersoy, main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) İstanbul Chairperson Canan Kaftancıoğlu and MP Sezgin Tanrıkulu were among the attendants of the event.

"Squares are the memories"

Çerkezoğlu, Koramaz, Adıyaman and Gezen denounced the government blocking the May Day celebrations in Taksim.

"Squares are the memories of the peoples. Those who try to erase those memories should know that not any kind of oppression will be able to remove this history and this memory," Çerkezoğlu said.

The group left cloves on the Kazancı Yokuşu, then walk to Şişhane through the İstiklal Avenue. They commemorated Mehmet Akif Dalcı in Şişhane, who was killed on May 1, 1989.

In Kadıköy in the Asian side of the city, Hasan Albayrak, Dursun Odabaş and Yalçın Levent, who lost their lives on May 1, 1996, were commemorated.

(EMK/EKN/VK)