File image.
Hundreds of thousands hit the streets across Turkey late on March 21 to protest for the third straight night against the arrest of Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, a leading opponent of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Imamoglu was arrested before he was expected to be nominated as the Republican People’s Party (CHP) candidate for the presidency on charges including terrorism and organized crime.
Supporters of the opposition leader clashed in the cities of Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir with riot police, who fired tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannons to disperse them. The next day, the Interior Ministry announced the arrest of 343 people. It said that the arrests were made to prevent “the disruption of public order” and warned that authorities would not tolerate “chaos and provocation.”
Speaking earlier in the day, Erdogan said that Turkey will not tolerate any threats to public order and vowed to stand firm against vandalism and street violence.
“We will not allow public order to be damaged. We will not give in to vandalism or street terrorism,” the president said in a speech.
Imamoglu, who won the mayorship of Turkey’s most populous city last year with a landslide, was accused alongside six others of “aiding and abetting a terrorist organization,” namely the Kurdistan Workers’ Party. He is also under investigation for “bribery, extortion, corruption, aggravated fraud, and illegally obtaining personal data for profit as part of a criminal organization” along with 99 other suspects, including other CHP members.
The leader spoke with the police on March 22 morning in connection with the terrorism charges, sources from the CHP told AFP.
He was then expected to appear before prosecutors at Caglayan courthouse to be questioned in both the terrorism and organized crime charges.
“Mr Imamoglu denies all the charges against him,” one of his lawyers, Mehmet Pehlivan, said in a post to the X social network.
“The detention was aimed at undermining Mr Imamoglu’s reputation in the eyes of society,” he added, noting that both probes were “based on untrue allegations” and “a violation of the right to a fair trial”.
In a message on X sent via his lawyers, Imamoglu said he was “honored and proud” of the protestors who hit the streets in more than 50 of Turkey’s 81 provinces, saying they were “protecting our republic, our democracy, the future of a just Turkey, and the will of our nation”.
The arrest of Imamoglu has hurt the Turkish lira and financial markets. On March 21, it was reported that Turkey spent nearly $12 billions defending the lira. On the same day, the stock exchange’s BIST 100 index closed down nearly eight percent.
Erdogan and his ruling Justice and Development Party faced similar political challenges in the past, and always came out on top. However, Turkey’s worsening economic crisis could play in favor of the CHP this time, especially if the protests persisted.
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who cares.
more interested in the fighting in the ukraine.
order out of chaos .
it’s time to take the dog down. enough of his terrorist groups in the region and his total loyalty to israhell. take him down
better crush that color revolution president erdogan, because these criminals will have you in the streets like gaddafi if they succeed. you can’t play nice with a den of thieves .
you’re just trolling here ain’t you?
never-ever have erdogan faced this type of serious situation before. erdogan is going down.
no. erdogan will win. erdogan will make war with greece soon , and after the war some greek islands will be turkish and erdogan will be elect again soon
turkey must become christian country.
then the problem ends.
lol, no “street terrorism” erdogan only supports old fashioned mass murdering terrorism.
the dictator will not allow a political opponent . the public sees they must protest for self determination . erdogan will crush this with cia and mossad help . the cia flow of stolen oil from syria must flow through turkey. the arms it buys must support the greater israel project . they used stolen syrian oil to destroy syria .
political opponent ekrem will be killed in the prison soon so ekren can not be president.
trump and putin must help turkey become christian country.
dictator erdogan will kill ekrem in the prison with a suicast and problem will be finish.
patriots all over the world taking action!
fckk turkey
errrdog gone is going to be errordoggone
the assad curse is going to hit dictator errordog-gone
the turks must pay the price for funding terrrorism and ruining syria