May 1 in Istanbul turned into a “Mayday!” for those who sought peace and harmony in the city amid pleasant spring weather. The light morning breeze carried pepper spray along the main streets and alleys leading to Taksim Square, turning the neighborhood and beyond, to the Golden Horn and Bosphorus, into a battlefield and forcing tourists as well as locals indoors.

The de facto state of emergency showed how thin the line is between finding a new mode of coexistence under a new, democratic constitution and ongoing mutual resentment and polarization. Scenes from the street battles, involving demonstrators from the leftist trade unions and clandestine Marxist groups, illustrate this situation, for which all sides are to blame to varying degrees. It is a case study in how being obstinate only leads to closed doors in a society that desperately seeks democratic closure.

Taksim Square has been the site of major construction and thus a center of bitter dispute. The work in progress is a radical project launched by the municipality, which is governed by the Justice and Development Party (AKP). The plan envisions narrowing the square's now-impressive space with the addition of a reconstructed, historic barracks and a massive shopping center. While many concerned locals view the project as the “architectural slaughter” of the beloved hub of the city, the leftist camp sees it as a pretext for closing the square permanently to May 1 celebrations.

The location is loaded with symbolism for Turkey's socialists. It was here that their political struggle became visible and bloodied with the massacre on May 1, 1977, when 34 people were gunned down and several hundred wounded in the ensuing rampage. This incident, attributed to actions by Gladio-type “deep state” dark forces, has never been sufficiently explained and lies behind the insistence of the socialist camp on assembling at the square every year.