The city of Istanbul has been turned into a battlefield by the AK Party government once again on the May Day protests. An unnamed curfew has been declared; Prime Minister Davutoğlu stated “there is no prohibition of the May Day, only precautions and security measures by the provincial governors.” Thus he made it clear that officially May Day has not been outlawed -yet! However, streets have been occupied by riot police, roads have been blocked, highways blocked, a planned day-long power cut issued for the central Istanbul, all public transport halted, no cars allowed on streets and all civilians seen around were subjected to arbitrary body-checks from head to toe. The whole city of Istanbul has been treated like an invaded, fallen hero’s motherland, in tied up but conceited.
