Police Teargas Activists Marking Taksim Protests Anniversary

Authorities said 65 people had been arrested. Turkey's Human Rights Association, however, said that at least 80 people were detained and 13 people were injured in the clashes.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned earlier on Saturday that police had orders to disperse any new protests taking place in Istanbul's Taksim Square, as defiant activists rallied to mark a year since the launch of a deadly May 2013 crackdown on demonstrators.

A government ban on protests in the square remains in place. Security was tight around Taksim Square and around Istanbul, with some 25,000 police deployed, streets to the square blocked off and public transport curtailed, AFP reported.

"Our security forces have received clear-cut instructions and will do whatever is necessary, from A to Z," Erdogan told thousands of supporters at an Istanbul rally.

"You will not be able to take to [Taksim] like you did last year because you are obliged to abide by the laws... If you do not, the state will do whatever is necessary for its security," he said.

What began as a campaign last year to save Istanbul’s Gezi Park from being turned into a shopping mall spiralled into weeks of anti-government protests that eventually threatened to bring down Erdogan's administration.

Melissa spent 15 days camped out in Gezi Park, part of central Istanbul's Taksim Square, with other activists last year. She told FRANCE 24 that she had no hesitations about going back.

"People died protecting it, people died during the protests all over Turkey, so there is no turning back,” she said.

“If they are trying to demolish it again, we're going to be there, again and again."

On May 31 last year police attempted to break up the Gezi Park protest camp with batons, tear gas and rubber bullets.