Huge crowds gathered outside the town hall of Istanbul on Saturday evening for a fourth night of demonstrations in the face of the arrest of the mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, who afflicted official allegations against him as “immoral and without foundation”.
The demonstrations, which began in Istanbul on Wednesday, have spread over 55 of the 81 provinces of Turkey, which arousing clashes with the riot police in the worst street demonstrations in more than a decade.
The arrest of Imamoglu came only a few days before it was officially appointed the main candidate of the opposition CHP in the presidential race of 2028.
“Dictators are cowards!” And “AKP (the party in power of Turkey), you are not silent!” Read some of the signs of Istanbul's demonstration on Saturday evening, which seemed larger and dense than the previous night.
On the sidelines of the rally, the demonstrators clashed again with riot police, who pulled tear gas, rubber bullets and a pepper spray and also used percussion grenades, said AFP correspondents.
In the capital Ankara, the riot police used water cannons to repel the demonstrators, while in the western coastal city of the Izmir police, blocked a student march heading towards the local offices of the AKP.
The chief of the CHP, Ozgur Ozel, addressing mass demonstrators in Istanbul, told them that they had “more than half a million”.
He swore that the mobilization “would defend” Ekrem and walk to the courthouse where the mayor was taken late Saturday.
In this courthouse, about 10 kilometers (six miles) of the town hall demonstration, the police had installed a tight safety cordon while around 1,000 demonstrators were stretching near slogans.
Earlier on Saturday, the 53 -year -old mayor denounced the accusations against him as “immoral and baseless” in a statement published by the Town Hall.
“This process has not only had the international reputation of Turkey, but also broke the sense of justice and public confidence in the economy,” he said.
– Turkish lira slides –
The news of the mayor's arrest seriously harmed the LIRA and caused chaos on the financial markets of Turkey with the Benchmark bist 100 index on Friday, almost 8.0%.
“We are here today to defend the candidate we voted for,” Aykut Cenk, 30, told AFP outside the court, holding a Turkish flag.
“Just as people took the streets to defend Erdogan after the coup of July 15 (2016), we are now going down the streets for Imamoglu,” said Cenk.
“We are not the enemy of the state, but what is happening is illegal.”
The troubles spread quickly despite a prohibition of protest in the three largest cities in Turkey and a warning from Erdogan that the authorities would not tolerate “street terror”.
“For four days, they have done everything they can to disrupt peace and divide our people,” said Erdogan on Saturday.
“The days when politics and justice are guided by the terror of the street are completely in the past,” he added.
Earlier in the evening, the governor of Istanbul, Davut Gul, said that the authorities would not allow anyone to enter or leave the city which was “likely to participate in illegal activities”.
The police have arrested 343 people since the start of the demonstrations, the Interior Ministry announced on Friday.
– “targeted” journalists –
The Turkish journalists' union said that the police had “deliberately targeted” journalists, saying that many had been “severely beaten, slaughtered with rubber balls and had broken equipment”.
Journalists Without Borders (RSF) also denounced the violence “heavy and completely arbitrary” against journalists, demanding that the officials be “severely punished”.
Despite the detention of Imamoglu, the CHP promised to continue with its primary on Sunday during which he would officially appoint him as a party presidential candidate.
He undertook to open the vote on anyone, not only the members of the party, in the hope of gathering massive support for the besieged mayor, who is largely considered as the only politician capable of challenging Erdogan.
Observers have said that the government would likely seek to block the vote.
BUR-HMW / RMB / JJ
