May Day

Turkish police fired tear gas and water cannon to disperse protesters who had gathered in the Besiktas district of Istanbul despite a ban on holding May Day demonstrations in Taksim Square.

Istanbul Police Chief Selami Altinok said a total of 136 people had been detained by 2 pm local time on Friday, according to Turkey's Anadolu news agency, as cited by the BBC News.

May Day 2015 in Greece: A general strike for some, a holiday marking the apex of spring and a celebration of flowers for others. Protest marches took place in several Greek cities on Friday, with the biggest in central Athens, where the “star” participant was none other than the world’s latest “celebrity economist”, FinMin Yanis Varoufakis.

After a Turkish policeman kicked him during a May Day demo in Istanbul, a stray dog has chased a patrol car, in scenes that went viral on social media.

The stray dog was kicked away by a policeman who was detaining a protester near Taksim Square on May 1. Soon after the incident, the dog started to chase a police car at the square, barking.

As May Day demonstrations ended throughout Turkey, police have managed to keep the masses away from Istanbul's Taksim Square by taking extraordinary measures, detaining at least 203 people.

Opposition parties and some unions had announced that they were determined to march to the square from the nearby Be?ikta? neighborhood where they have been gathering from 10:00 a.m.

As demonstrations are underway throughout Turkey to mark May Day, Turkish police have taken extraordinary measures to prevent them, detaining at least 136 people, particularly around Istanbul's Taksim Square, which is on lockdown today.

Greece’s next payment to the International Monetary Fund, totaling some 200 million euros in interest payments, is due on May 6 instead of May 1, because of the May Day holiday in the country, an IMF spokesman said on Thursday.

Istanbul's iconic Taksim Square is set to be on lockdown to prevent celebrations of May Day, but opposition parties and some unions have announced that they are determined to march to the square, as the prime minister underlined that only "symbolic" rallies would be allowed.

A columnist of an Islamist newspaper in Turkey, which recently confused The Beatles with Turkish high school students after misunderstanding a protest poster, has said the daily is proud of its ignorance about the British music legends.

?Say we do not know who The Beatles are... For us, this is a matter of pride, not ignorance,? daily Vahdet columnist Fatih Akkaya wrote on April 29.

Workers' unions have continued their calls to meet in Istanbul's Taksim Square for May Day celebrations, but the Istanbul Police Department has begun taking excessive security measures to prevent unions from gathering at the square after the governor's office prohibited rallies in the square.

An Islamist newspaper in Turkey has confused The Beatles with Turkish high school students after misunderstanding a poster calling for people to take to the streets on May Day.

"The United June Movement [BHH] has undertaken a fresh provocation for May Day," daily Vahdet claimed on April 27, referring to an umbrella organization that took part in the Gezi Park protests in 2013.