Istanbu: Nearly 40 people, including journalists, trade unionists and opposition figures, were arrested on Tuesday before International Workers' Day on May 1 in Istanbul, which police have traditionally locked down.
The prosecutor general's office in the city told reporters that arrest and search warrants had been issued against 62 people, of whom 46 it deemed "likely to carry out attacks".
Out of the 46, 39 were detained in Istanbul and in the nearby Kocaeli area, it added.
Turkiye's MLSA, a press and legal freedom body, said police raids had been carried out at the home of a lawyer and the offices of opposition newspapers Ozgur Gelecek and Yeni Demokrasi, where the doors were "kicked in".
According to a lawyer, Serhat Alan, whose home was searched, "custody documents concerning 46 people were presented to him", the MLSA said.
"Since this case is subject to a 24-hour confidentiality order, restrictions have been imposed on access to lawyers," it added.
The main pro-Kurdish DEM party, which is the third-largest in the Turkish parliament, denounced what it said were "operations targeting the left and socialists" as well as student organisations before May 1.
"Numerous comrades have been taken into custody," it said, adding that the actions were aimed at "shrinking the space for democratic politics" and that they would "deepen social tensions".
May 1, which celebrates workers and the working classes, sees a major police deployment in Turkiye every year, with a large area in the heart of Istanbul around Taksim Square is sealed off from the previous evening.
Last year, protests moved to the Kadikoy area of the city and more than 400 people were arrested.
