STORY: In Istanbul, riot police used pepper spray against participants in a demonstration to mark International Women’s Day and arrested five women. They are members of a group called the “Socialist Women’s Movement,” said a representative of the group. A video circulated on Twitter shows women parading through the Taksim district and the police trying to stop them. The signs read requests such as “Organize your anger” – probably in response to the aftermath of the devastating earthquakes last month. Authorities had previously banned marches, protests or press statements. Elsewhere in Istanbul, too, people took to the streets on Wednesday – and met with a massive police presence. “We came here to show our anger against the state and to expose its irresponsibility regarding femicide. We are also here to commemorate the people we lost to the earthquake, femicide and transgender killings – to stand up against the hate against LGBT and against male state violence that surrounds our lives,” said this student who took part in the demonstration. In Turkey, a new president will be elected in just over two months, and a new parliament will also be elected – a challenge for incumbent Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Critics accuse him of failure to protect against the consequences of earthquakes. The government also reacted too slowly to the disaster. More than 50,000 people were officially reported dead in Turkey and Syria after the earthquakes in February.