Bloody Sunday (1969)

Bloody Sunday (Turkish: Kanlı Pazar) is the name given to a counter-revolutionary response to a leftist protest that occurred on February 16, 1969, in Istanbul's Beyazıt Square, Turkey.

At eleven o'clock ten thousands of left-wing students supported by labor unions and the labor party started gathering in Beyazıt in order to protest against the dropping anchor of the United States Sixth Fleet at the Bosporus.

The route of demonstration began at the Beyazıt Square, went over Karaköy, Tophane and Gümüşsuyu where they paid tribute to death of the student Vedat Demircioğlu at the Istanbul Technical University.

Meanwhile, right-wing students met at the Dolmabahçe Mosque for the suppression of the leftist protest and prayed before they moved on.

[8] Similar attacks on labor groups by right-wing elements in the government and Turkish politics occurred in 1971 and 1977.