ISTANBUL — Riot police officers fired tear gas and water cannons to disperse hundreds of protesters who took to the streets of Istanbul on Friday to defy a government ban on holding May Day celebrations in Taksim Square.
Scores of demonstrators scurried through side streets as the police unleashed the tear gas and jets of water. At least 136 people were detained, according to Istanbul’s police chief, Selami Altinok.
The authorities had made an attempt to lock down the city with roadblocks and by suspending main public transportation lines. About 10,000 police officers were also deployed in an effort to prevent labor unions and activists from gathering in Taksim Square, where violence has marred May Day celebrations in the past.
In the Besiktas district, activists shouted resistance slogans and May Day chants. Many protesters were stopped and searched by the police, and several people with gas masks were arrested in the Sisli district.
“Turkey has a highly oppressive government with dictatorial tendencies,” said Kani Beko, the president of the Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions of Turkey, which represents more than 320,000 workers in the country.
“They would do anything to prevent anyone calling for better democracy in this country,” he added.
Cengiz Umut, a member of the trade union confederation, said: “Taksim is ours. It is a symbol of May Day. Gathering there is our right.”
“Look at all this police around you,” he added. “This is pure fascism.”
Taksim Square was closed to May Day celebrations by the military government in 1980 after an episode in 1977 when gunmen opened fire on the rally, killing dozens of protesters.
The government reopened the square for May Day celebrations in 2010, but it closed it again citing security concerns. The square has been under tight police control since 2013, when it became the center of sweeping antigovernment protests that roiled the country and created one of the greatest challenges to the government of the former prime minister and current president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Before the protests on Friday, the governor of Istanbul, Vasip Sahin, said Taksim Square was not a suitable site for May Day events, citing risks to security and property.
He invited union representatives to lay wreaths in the square to commemorate the dead protesters, but he urged them to hold any mass gatherings in designated areas outside the city center.
In March, the government passed a security bill that broadened police powers and increased penalties against unauthorized demonstrators, in what was widely considered an attempt to secure public order before parliamentary elections in June.
The protests on Friday came at a time of deep polarization in Turkey. There has been mounting opposition to what many see as the authoritarian style of Mr. Erdogan and his government. The authorities have responded by increasingly quashing dissent.
“This government has made this city unlivable,” said Alev Kuyumcu, a protester who lives in Besiktas. “They make us suffocate on a national holiday. You can’t even leave the house.”
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