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Turkish police have detained more than 300 people during the biggest opposition demonstrations in more than a decade against the arrest of Istanbul’s popular mayor, the Interior Ministry said on Saturday.
Ekrem İmamoğlu, the main challenger to Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the country’s longtime leader, was taken into custody on Wednesday on corruption and terrorism charges.
Police detained 343 people at protests in Istanbul, the capital Ankara and seven other cities, according to a statement by Ali Yerlikaya, the interior minister.
İmamoğlu’ denies the charges and his supporters accuse Erdoğan of using the police and judiciary to stymie his political aspirations. The justice minister has denied the investigations are politically motivated and said Turkish courts act independently.
The move against İmamoğlu has thrust the country into political and economic turmoil. It ignited a deep sell-off in Turkish assets that forced the central bank to sell billions of dollars of its reserves to defend the lira as it tries to cool inflation of about 40 per cent.
It has also energised an opposition that has faced a long-running clampdown on free speech and assembly during Erdoğan’s 22 years in power.
The government has largely stamped out mass political protests since 2013, when hundreds of thousands of people took part in demonstrations, called the Gezi Park protests. The crackdown marked a turning point in Erdoğan’s slide towards authoritarian rule.
“Those who seek to disrupt the social order, threaten the peace and security of our nation and seek chaos and provocation will never be given a chance and will absolutely not be tolerated,” Yerlikaya said in a post on X.
Protesters in Istanbul, Ankara and the third-largest city of Izmir are defying a ban on public gatherings after the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) called on them to demonstrate peacefully every evening until İmamoğlu is freed.
The protests have been mostly orderly, but on Friday night riot police used tear gas and rubber bullets outside Istanbul’s city hall to stop some demonstrators who attempted to cross a barricade and threw objects at police, according to news reports. Water cannons were deployed in Ankara and Izmir.
Erdoğan on Friday vowed Turkey “will not surrender to street terrorism” and described the CHP’s call for protests a dead end.
“We will not allow a handful of thieves within the CHP to turn their own issues into the people’s issues,” he said.
İmamoğlu was questioned for close to nine hours by police on Friday and Saturday, news channels said, and is expected to be brought to court to face prosecutors. He can only be held for four days without charge under the country’s anti-terrorism statutes.
He was detained just days before a CHP primary to name its presidential candidate. The party said it would go ahead with the nationwide vote on Sunday, inviting both its registered members and non-members to cast ballots. İmamoğlu, who has been Istanbul’s mayor since 2019, is the only candidate.
A general election is not scheduled until 2028 but the CHP said that nominating İmamoğlu now could pressure parliament to call a snap vote. İmamoğlu has consistently outperformed Erdoğan in opinion polls, with voters unhappy with the president’s handling of the cost of living crisis.
Erdoğan is precluded from running again by term limits, but his allies have called for the constitution to be amended so that he can stand again and extend his rule into its third decade.
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