The Turkish government has brought forward a bill to reinstate 1st May as an official holiday in Turkey.

In many countries this day is recognised as International Workers' Day, or May Day.  This was the case in Turkey until the military intervention of 1980, which resulted in this official holiday being withdrawn.

The Turkish government has been under pressure from the Turkish unions to reinstate this official holiday.  May Day has seen a number of protests on the streets of Turkey, especially in Istanbul.  In 2008 the government did officially recognise 1st May as Labour and Solidarity day, but did not go as far as giving it recognition as an official holiday.

The AKP government has now decided that the time is right to bring back this official holiday, a move that is bound to be popular with many people.  In Kalkan you can never have too many days holiday, so one more day has got to be a good thing.

Update: the bill was passed and 1st May is now officially a public holiday.