The May 1st photo of the Century of Turkey

Who would have thought that the Saraçhane aqueduct, the lifeblood of Istanbul built 1,500 years ago to meet the city's water needs, would become the symbolic image of an oppressive regime 1,500 years later?

This photo, in which hundreds of police officers formed a human wall in front of the historic aqueduct, is the shameful frame of the Century of Turkey. Yet, are the police officers who blocked the road to Taksim for citizens gathering in Saraçhane to celebrate May 1st Labor and Solidarity Day not also workers?

Are they able to earn a wage that gives them the right to comfortably cover their food, rent, electricity, water, transportation, and their children's education expenses?

Does the police officer not suffer from the cost of living?

According to DİSK's “Hunger and Poverty Line Research” for the March 2024 period, the poverty line for a family of 4 has reached 57 thousand 578 TL per month. For the first time, the minimum wage is below the hunger threshold. The pension of a civil servant who has served as a police officer for an average of 20-25 years is 19 thousand TL! The average police salary is 46 thousand TL. If their spouse is not working, the income of a police family also hovers at the poverty line under today's economic conditions.

On a day when inflation cannot be brought down, the cost of living is strangling us, and we should be standing up for the May 1st struggle as a nation—police, workers, civil servants, and teachers alike—perhaps it even pricks the conscience of the police to be part of the barricade set up against the May 1st march, to spray pepper gas at people who defend brotherhood, labor, and solidarity... We do not know.

As a result, May 1st in Turkey was reflected in the world press with this sad frame. Shielded police officers who had set up barricades and formed a human wall at the 1,500-year-old Valens Aqueduct, and snipers positioned on top of the historic aqueduct.

The Aqueduct, built in the 4th century to be a source of life for the city's people, became a symbol of despotism in 2024, banning the city's people from their constitutional right to march and poisoning May 1st Labor and Solidarity Day with pepper gas.

Turkey is a country of contradictions. The two sides facing each other—on one side our police officers receiving salaries below the poverty line, and on the other side our workers who are also defending the rights of the police—are the unseen, sad face of this frame!

While the police blockade continued, the Minister of Interior addressed Turkey from his social media account with these sentences: “I thank our heroic police in Istanbul who resisted illegal demonstrations and marches on May 1st Labor and Solidarity Day with great wisdom and common sense, and who are an example to all police forces in the world regarding how social events should be managed. I am proud of you.”

Taksim Square, the true owner of May 1st, remained desolate and abandoned on May 1st once again.

Everything will change when you feel the slap you dealt to someone else on your own face. And the day will come when May 1st will be celebrated arm-in-arm in Taksim Square by workers, laborers, police, journalists, lawyers, and judges alike.