Turkish police block Taksim Square in Istanbul

The newspaper said that today Turkey's trade unions appealed to the Istanbul mayor's office on holding a rally to mark May 1. It was also reported that the Istanbul mayor's office refused to allow trade unions to hold rallies on Taksim Square, explaining that the square has no place for such rallies. On May 31, 2013, protests began in Turkey against the construction of a shopping center on Taksim Square. In the beginning, the protests were peaceful, but then changed direction, and turned into a confrontation with the police. Despite the expected rallies in Istanbul in support of the protests on Taksim Square, these rallies virtually spread over many major cities in Turkey, Kazinform refers to Trend.az. The unrests in Turkey killed four people, while about 4,000 people were left with injuries of varying severity, and police detained 4,900 people. Among the detainees there were also the citizens of European countries.