I left early for work today, knowing traffic might be worse, (It's May day). The lefties did not dissapoint and there getting their heads beat by the police today, (God bless them).
Whoever said that yesterdays demonstation was by leftist politics was defnitely confused.
Today is their day...
Trudy, you asked what it was like during previous military takeovers. During the'70s, the left and right, beat each other in the streets, literally.
The militray stepped in and restored order, and a new government.

okay its May Day but what has changed this year?
It was more quiet last years..

Our May Day is not May Day until next Monday - we always have the first Monday in May off. But that does not stop the rally's happening. Dont know of any today tho'.

So happy May Day to all who celebrate it!

I had my first taste of tear gas today, thank you to the lefties. I had an appointmnet in Sultan Ahmet area this afternoon. But with no buses, tram or metro running. Had to walk from Mecidiyekoy to get there.... Needed the exercise i guess. But I stopped at my friends hotel in Taksim for a little while and had a front row view of some of the excitement.
Also, only one lane on both bridges were open as they were searching every car. Traffic line in first bridge was to Fenerbahce almost. Why do communists always create lines?

Yesterday was a more "sentimental" day then last year because exactly 30 years ago in Taksim, we had the "bloody May day". More than 30 people were murdered by unknown attackers. As far as I know, many people wanted to make a commemoration. (I am not sure of this last phrase)
According to goverment officals, they had some tip of an alleged attack (suicide bomob)against these people. With help of tear gas and brute force the police saved these people's lives.

The voice-over is in Dutch (and first a commercial, sorry) but the video shows what happened:

http://zoomin.tv/videoplayer/index.cfm?id=249403&mode=normal&pid=agn&quality=3&ftvplayer=yes