ISTANBUL: Turkey braced for a third day of protests on Friday, as anger simmered over Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu’s arrest in a graft and terror probe and ministers fired warnings over the mass rallies.
The popular Imamoglu, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s main political rival, was arrested at dawn on Wednesday, just days before he was to be formally named the candidate for the main opposition CHP party in the 2028 presidential election.
His party has denounced the detention as a “coup” and has vowed to keep up the demonstrations.
Huge crowds have defied a ban on demonstrations and have gathered outside City Hall for two nights running.
So far, police have largely shown restraint in handling the protests but on Thursday night, they fired rubber bullets and teargas as they scuffled with students near City Hall.
In Ankara, riot police used pepper gas, rubber bullets and water canon to disperse large crowds of protesters who rallied in the Turkish capital, an AFP correspondent said.
In a post on X, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said 53 people had so far been arrested in the protests, which began in Istanbul but have since spread to at least 29 of Turkey’s 81 provinces, according to an AFP count.
He said 16 police officers had been injured, and another 54 people detained for online posts deemed as “incitement to hatred”.
‘The streets are ours’
CHP party leader Ozgur Ozel warned Erdogan on Thursday that the opposition planned to keep up its protests, saying: “We will be on the streets from now on. Be afraid of us, the streets are ours, the squares are ours.”
A group of young protesters remained outside City Hall all night amid growing concerns the government might name its own trustee to take over — a move which has become increasingly common, particularly in southeastern Turkey where it has removed 10 opposition mayors in recent months.
Overnight, Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc denounced those calling the protesters onto the streets.
“Calls for street protests based on ongoing judicial investigations are unlawful and unacceptable,“ wrote Tunc on X early on Friday.
“Those in positions of responsibility should show more caution in their statements,“ he said, his words echoed by Yerlikaya.
“Calling people onto the streets and squares is irresponsible. No one can afford to pay the political, legal and moral price of stirring up the streets!” the interior minister wrote on X.
Also overnight, the restrictions on social media and internet access that had been in place since Imamoglu’s arrest appeared to have been lifted, according to EngelliWeb, an internet access monitor.
“The network bandwidth restrictions, which started at 07.00 on 19 March affecting Istanbul, ended 42 hours later, at 01.00 on 21 March,“ it wrote on X.
The move against Imamoglu has sent Turkey’s financial markets into a tailspin, dealing a heavy blow to the Turkish lira.
