This year’s May Day in Istanbul presented a defiant and active picture of the Turkish left. Opposition parties, communist initiatives, feminist collectives, civil-society organizations, ethnic minority groups, and trade unions were all present at the government-sanctioned protest space in the district of Maltepe where the events were held. Despite Turkey being in the second year of a state of emergency, and facing snap parliamentary and presidential elections called for June, the celebrations were filled with hope.

Since the early days of the Turkish Republic, the “worker’s holiday” (İşçi Bayramı) has been a major event for left-leaning political movements; since 2009 it has been celebrated throughout Turkey as a national holiday. Taksim Square, where celebrations were held for many years, holds symbolic significance for May Day. It was also the site of a mass shooting on May 1, 1977 by assumed right-wing extremists, an event that has become part of Turkey’s collective memory of traumas. A somber one-minute silence was held in the Maltepe Miting Alanı , the government-sanctioned protest space, for those killed.