The Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) Labour Commission and DEM Party Istanbul Provincial Organisation held a press conference on 1 May. DEM Party Co-Deputy Chairperson Sevtap Akdağ read the press conference at the provincial office in Beyoğlu district.

DEM Party Deputy Co-Chair, Sevtap Akdağ, read the press statement. Remarking that the AKP is the guardian of the capitalist system in Turkey, which turns the world into hell with its policies of war and exploitation, Akdağ said: "In its 23 years in power, it has devalued our labour and our lives more than ever before. While the economy grew for a handful of cronies and capitalists, poverty increased as never before. Women, young people, workers and labourers had the biggest share of this poverty."

Drawing attention to the 31 March local election results, Akdağ stated that change is possible and listed the demands they will express on 1 May as follows: "We say ‘enough’ to this exploitation order that condemns workers, labourers, pensioners and young people to poverty, hunger, unemployment, debt and precariousness, and that has become a heavy burden on the back of the country. We say ‘enough’ to those who, hand in hand with capital, cover up their own responsibilities by blaming workplace deaths on 'fate'. We say ‘enough’ to those who threaten our hope of living together, who spend the budget resources created with our taxes on wars that push our peoples into an endless spiral of violence and poverty. We say ‘enough’ to those who have turned prisons into concentration camps for tens of thousands of our people who ask questions, question and express their demand for rights and freedom. We say ‘enough’ to this anti-Kurdish order that imposes not peace and hope, but insolvency. We say ‘enough’ to isolation, femicides and the plunder of nature."

Sevtap Akdağ denounced the Istanbul Governorate's ban of the Taksim Square for 1 May celebration. "Banning Taksim on 1 May is the last move of the government that deepens all the problems of the country, especially the Kurdish question, with violence and oppression," said Akdağ and stated that they do not recognise the Governorate's decision.

Speaking after, DEM Party Istanbul Co-Chair Murat Kalmaz said: "We invite all our people and workers to Taksim on 1 May against the exploitation of labour, the conflicts, isolation and the slaughter of workers. Let's celebrate 1 May shoulder to shoulder in Taksim Square."

DEM Party Istanbul Co-Chair Gonca Yangöz also stated that they will be in Taksim as women on 1 May to say "Co-presidency and equal representation is our purple line" and added: "We will be at Barbaros Boulevard at 10.00 on 1 May with the slogan 'From 8 March to 1 May, we are coming with women's rebellion' to defend honourable peace against the politics of war, to raise the resistance of our women comrades in prisons, to demand equal pay for equal work, to raise solidarity with disabled and migrant, refugee women. We invite all our people to join us."

DEM Party Istanbul MP Çiçek Otlu commemorated those who were murdered on 1 May 1977 and 1996, saying, "The streets of Taksim know us very well. We marched together with the workers when 1 May was banned. At the same time, we women, who are the subjects of the women's liberation struggle, surrounded Taksim and raised our voices against male domination from the Feminist Night March to 25 November."