Nearly 600 people have been arrested in Istanbul as police launched a dramatic clampdown on left-wing demonstrators trying to hold a May Day rally.
Officers fired tear gas and used batons to stop the crowd marching to Taksim Square, where they were due to mark the 30th anniversary of "Bloody May Day".
Thirty-four people died in 1977 after a gunman fired, triggering a stampede.
This year's rally is taking place in a country already tense over a disputed presidential election.
The constitutional court is currently examining an opposition call to cancel the election of Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul as president. The first round of parliamentary voting ended in disarray on Friday.
[...]The presidential election has pitted secularists against the Islamist-rooted AK party, which has an overwhelming majority in parliament.
The army - seen as a guardian of Turkish secularism - has warned that it will defend the separation of state and religion, the legacy of the state's founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.
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