Turkish police have detained several activists and imposed heavy security on Istanbul, on the third anniversary of protests that posed the biggest challenge yet to the rule of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

The May-June 2013 protests began as a grassroots movement to stop plans for the redevelopment of Gezi Park in central Istanbul but became a nationwide wave of anger against Erdoğan.

The demonstrations eventually fizzled out after a heavy-handed police response and the security forces have since reacted harshly with water cannon and teargas to even the smallest anti-government rallies.

Hundreds of armed police were deployed in Taksim Square next to Gezi Park, with access to the centre of the square and the park barred to the public throughout the day, according to an AFP correspondent.

Despite the centre of the square being fenced off by metal barriers, hundreds of opposition activists held a march in the evening down Istanbul’s main shopping avenue, Istiklal Street, nearby. The protest went off largely peacefully but police scuffled with a splinter group of dozens of people, making arrests, the correspondent said.

Similar protest rallies were also held in the capital Ankara and the southern resort of Antalya.

Meanwhile police detained 16 activists at the offices of the city architects’ chamber near the Ottoman-era Yildiz Palace, which had opposed the Gezi Park development and strongly backed the protests, local media reports said. Those detained included the chamber’s general secretary, Mücella Yapici, and a lawyer, Can Atalay, who were both prominent figures in the Gezi movement. Reports said they had failed to obey an eviction order. An AFP reporter saw them being taken away in a police bus. They were later released and took part in the Istiklal rally.

Eight were killed in the nationwide unrest that followed the Gezi Park protests. Erdoğan, who was prime minister at the time, famously rubbished the protesters as “hooligans”.

The low-key anniversary arrived a day after Erdoğan laid into the western media for being allegedly “blind, deaf and dumb” to a police crackdown on demonstrators in strike-hit France, despite broadcasting “uninterrupted” coverage of Turkey’s 2013 protests.

Apparently in response to his words, pro-Erdoğan bloggers on Twitter launched a campaign urging people to beware of France as it prepares to stage the European football championships, using the hashtag #FranceisnotsecureforEuro2016.