With flags waving and slogans resonating, hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators gathered in Istanbul, demanding the preservation of democracy following the arrest of Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, which incited Turkey’s most severe street unrest in over a decade.
Under a clear blue sky, substantial crowds amassed in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s largest city, coinciding with the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration beginning on Sunday to mark the conclusion of Ramadan.
Ozgur Ozel, leader of the main opposition party CHP that organized the rally, claimed there were 2.2 million attendees, although AFP could not independently verify this number.
“I’m not afraid. I have only one life, and I’m willing to sacrifice it for this country,” stated an 82-year-old woman in a headscarf, holding a photograph of Imamoglu and the Turkish flag.
“He is an honest man, the one who will save the Turkish republic,” she said regarding the mayor, who was arrested and subsequently jailed amid a corruption investigation perceived by many as unfounded.
The large-scale protests, sparked by Imamoglu’s detention on March 19, have resulted in a stern government reaction, heavily criticized by human rights organizations and international observers.
Recognized as the only Turkish politician potentially capable of confronting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the polls, Imamoglu was nominated as the CHP’s candidate for the 2028 presidential election on the very day he was imprisoned.
He was triumphantly re-elected as mayor last year for the third time. The outrage over his arrest quickly spread from Istanbul to other parts of Turkey.
Nightly demonstrations outside Istanbul City Hall attracted vast numbers and frequently erupted into clashes with riot police, who utilized tear gas, pepper spray, and rubber bullets to disperse the crowds.
“We are here today for our homeland. We, the people, choose our leaders,” declared 17-year-old Melis Basak Ergun, asserting that the demonstrators would not be intimidated “by violence or tear gas.”
“We support our mayor, Imamoglu.”
‘Keep fighting!’
On their way to the rally, protesters aboard ferries traversing the Bosphorus were heard chanting: “Everywhere is Taksim, resistance is everywhere!”
This echoed a reference to Istanbul’s iconic Taksim Square, the focal point of the last major wave of protests in 2013.
“I participated in the protests outside City Hall for four days alongside university students. I urged them not to surrender,” protester Cafer Sungur, 78, told AFP.
“There is no alternative but to persist in our fight,” he stated.
“I was imprisoned in the 1970s when there was justice. Today, we can no longer speak of justice.” Among the protest attendees were Imamoglu’s wife, Dilek, their children, and his parents, as noted by an AFP correspondent.
Opposition leader Ozel informed French newspaper Le Monde that the Saturday rallies would henceforth occur weekly in cities throughout Turkey, along with a weekly Wednesday night demonstration in Istanbul.
“If we do not halt this attempted coup, it will signify the end of the ballot box,” he asserted.
Student groups continue to hold their own protests, mostly masked, despite a police crackdown that has led to nearly 2,000 arrests.
The authorities have also restricted media coverage, apprehending 13 Turkish journalists within just five days, deporting a BBC correspondent, and detaining a Swedish reporter who arrived in Istanbul to report on the unrest.
Eleven journalists were released on Thursday, including AFP photographer Yasin Akgul.
Swedish journalist Joakim Medin, who arrived in Turkey on Thursday to cover the demonstrations, was imprisoned on Friday, according to his employer Dagens ETC.
Reporters Without Borders’ Turkey representative Erol Onderoglu stated that Medin has been charged with “insulting the president”—a common accusation used to silence critics of Erdogan.
“The judicial pressure routinely exerted on domestic journalists for a long time is now being applied to their foreign counterparts,” he told AFP.
Turkish authorities held BBC journalist Mark Lowen for 17 hours on Wednesday before deporting him for allegedly posing “a threat to public order,” according to the broadcaster.
Turkish officials attributed this to “a lack of accreditation.”
Baris Altintas, co-director of MLSA, a legal NGO assisting many of the detainees, told AFP that the authorities “appear to be very determined to restrict media coverage of the protests.”
He added, “We are concerned that the crackdown on the press will not only persist but may also escalate.”
