Thousands of Turks ramped up protests on Thursday despite a ban on street gatherings over what they called the undemocratic detention of Istanbul\u2019s mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, as the opposition sought to pin the blame on President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.<\/p>\n
Even as police erected barricades and dozens of people were detained over social media posts, protesters gathered at a municipal headquarters and police station in Istanbul and at universities and public squares across the country.<\/p>\n
Imamoglu, 54, Erdogan\u2019s main political rival, was taken in on Wednesday facing charges of graft and aiding a terrorist group, a move that the opposition condemned as a \u201ccoup attempt\u201d and that sparked an initial round of demonstrations and criticism from European leaders.<\/p>\n
The move against the popular two-term mayor caps a months-long legal crackdown on opposition figures that has been criticised as a politicised attempt to hurt their electoral prospects and silence dissent, charges the government denies.<\/p>\n
In an interview, Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People\u2019s Party (CHP), including Imamoglu, said Erdogan feared facing the mayor in a vote and wanted to \u201ctake him out of the game\u201d and cut his party\u2019s ties with the city.<\/p>\n
He said that any move barring Imamoglu from running for president in the next election would only strengthen the opposition\u2019s support, adding the CHP will appoint him its candidate on Sunday at a scheduled vote.<\/p>\n
Ozgur Ozel, leader of the main opposition Republican People\u2019s Party (CHP), gestures during an interview in the aftermath of the detention of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu in Istanbul, Turkiye on March 20. \u2014 Reuters
\n\u201cWe believe Imamoglu will win. If his candidacy is blocked, we believe this will turn into much greater support,\u201d Ozel told Reuters in his first interview with foreign media since the detention.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis nation has never forgiven anyone trying to lift the legitimacy of the ballots,\u201d he said next to a small room at the Istanbul municipality headquarters \u2014 with crowds gathering outside \u2014 where he intends to overnight until Imamoglu is released.<\/p>\n
Warnings
\nElections are not scheduled until 2028 but would need to come earlier if Erdogan, 71, who has run Turkiye for 22 years, wants to run again. Imamoglu leads the president in some polls.<\/p>\n
The government rejects the criticism and says the judiciary is independent. It has warned against tying Erdogan or politics to Imamoglu\u2019s arrest, after which it imposed a four-day ban on gatherings and restricted access to some social media to restrict communications.<\/p>\n
Police blocked off roads and stationed trucks with water cannons near the police station where the mayor is held and other areas of Turkiye\u2019s largest city.<\/p>\n
Imamoglu on Thursday called on members of the judiciary and Erdogan\u2019s ruling party to fight the injustice of his detention.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese events have gone beyond our parties or political ideals,\u201d he said on X. \u201cIt is time to raise our voices.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Thousands of Turks ramped up protests on Thursday despite a ban on street gatherings over what they called the undemocratic detention of Istanbul\u2019s mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, as the opposition sought to pin the blame on President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Even as police erected barricades and dozens of people were detained over social media posts, protesters […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7128,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7127"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7127\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7129,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7127\/revisions\/7129"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}