"Three May 1st Celebrations in Turkey"

1976 — Legal celebrations 40 years later.

1977 — Taksim Square had been declared off-limits since the bloodshed during a May Day rally there in 1977 when gunmen, believed to be far-right militants aided by members of the intelligence services, fired on a peaceful crowd, triggering mass panic. 37 people died.

2010 — The government's decision to fully open the square to May Day celebrations came after Parliament reinstated May Day as a national holiday in 2009 and allowed a limited group of union leaders and workers into Taksim on May 1 to commemorate the 1977 bloodshed.