Turkey’s main opposition has rallied in defence of the jailed Istanbul mayor, Ekrem İmamoğlu, in a move to sustain the largest anti-government demonstrations in years.
Hundreds of thousands of people attended the protest called by the head of the opposition Republican People’s party (CHP) in a spot far from the Istanbul city centre. The party leader, Özgur Özel, claimed 2.2 million people attended.
“They’ve detained hundreds of our children, thousands of our youths … arrested hundreds of them,” he told the crowds. “They only had one goal in mind: to intimidate them, terrify them, make sure they never go out again.”
He added: “In the Turkey we envision presidential candidates will not be imprisoned,” calling for the release of both İmamoğlu and jailed Kurdish politician Selahattin Demirtaş, a former presidential candidate who previously ran for office from prison, after he was jailed nine years ago on terrorism charges.
Earlier this week, Özel had called an end to nightly rallies outside Istanbul city hall, where hundreds of thousands attended while small groups of demonstrators frequently clashed with police. Security forces used teargas, water cannon and pepper spray on demonstrators, which Human Rights Watch described as an “unwarranted and unlawful use of police force”.
“Turkey is facing one of its gravest sociopolitical upheavals in decades,” said Human Rights Watch. Student groups and other small groups of protesters have continued disparate street protests in the days since the demonstrations outside city hall ended.
The Turkish authorities have arrested 1,900 people in the 10 days since İmamoğlu was detained on corruption charges, before he was removed from office by the Turkish interior ministry and sent to a high-security facility on the edge of Istanbul.
Many of those detained by security forces were seized in predawn raids, including 13 journalists. Ten photojournalists were arrested for covering the protests before being freed later in the week, hours before the justice minister, Yılmaz Tunç, met reporters, offering a defence of Turkey’s record on press freedom.
The BBC correspondent Mark Lowen was deported after covering the demonstrations, before Turkey’s presidential communications directorate claimed he was expelled for not having press accreditation. Authorities also arrested a Swedish journalist who flew to Turkey to cover the protests. Two more Turkish journalists were also detained, as well as İmamoğlu’s lawyer, who was later conditionally released.
Özel told the French daily Le Monde that Saturday rallies would become a weekly occurrence in different cities across Turkey, while the party would hold similar gatherings in Istanbul each Wednesday.
Özel said: “We believe the arrests will slow down from now.”
He added that he was “ready to take the risk of spending eight to 10 years in prison if necessary because if we don’t stop this attempted coup, it will mean the end of the ballot box”.
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İmamoğlu accused foreign leaders, particularly those in Europe, of failing to speak out about his detention in a message from prison published by the New York Times. He said: “Washington merely expressed ‘concerns regarding recent arrests and protests’ in Turkey. With few exceptions, European leaders have failed to offer a strong response.”
The jailed mayor had ruled Istanbul since 2019, winning in a landslide second vote after politicians aligned to the president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, demanded his initial victory be annulled. After winning a re-election once again last year, İmamoğlu is considered the sole candidate capable of beating Erdoğan in elections expected in the coming years.
On the same day the Istanbul mayor was imprisoned, 15 million people turned out to vote in a symbolic primary to nominate him as the CHP’s candidate for president.
İmamoğlu wrote: “Realising he cannot defeat me at the ballot box, Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has resorted to other means: having his main political opponent arrested on charges of corruption, bribery, leading a criminal network and aiding the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ party, even though the charges lack credible evidence.”
He added: “My detention marked a new phase in Turkey’s slide into authoritarianism and the use of arbitrary power. A country with a long democratic tradition now faces the serious risk of passing the point of no return.”
