The demonstrators were provocative on Wednesday despite an increasing repression and nearly 1,500 arrests because they have marked a week since the start of the biggest street demonstrations in Turkey since 2013.
The demonstrations broke out on March 19 after the arrest of the mayor of the opposition of Istanbul, Ekrem Imamoglu, as part of a transplant and “terror” investigation, which his supporters denounced as “coup”.
Large crowds hit the street daily, defying protest bans in Istanbul, the capital Ankara and Izmir with the disorders distributed across the country.
In a possible change in tactics, the main part of the people of the opposition republican (CHP) said that she did not call another night demonstration on Wednesday outside the office of the mayor of Istanbul so that people attend a mega rally on Saturday.
But it was far from certain that the angry students, who played an increasingly important role in the demonstrations and are far from all the supporters of the CHP, would remain in the street.
Most of the nights, the demonstrations have turned into battles with the riot police, whose difficult repression alarmed rights groups. But there were no such clashes on Tuesday, AFP correspondents said.
On Tuesday afternoon, police had detained 1,418 people, said Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya.
Among them, 11 Turkish journalists covering the demonstrations, seven of which were placed in pre -trial detention on Tuesday, including the photographer of AFP Yasin Akgul.
This decision was strongly denounced by the rights defense groups and the news agency based in Paris, which said that the imprisonment of 35 years was “unacceptable”, demanding its immediate release.
Imamoglu, 53, who was himself imprisoned on Sunday, is considered the only politician capable of defeating the longtime leader of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the urn.
– “There is no room in the prisons of Istanbul” –
Addressing the vast crowds gathered for a seventh consecutive night at the town hall of Istanbul, the head of the opposition Ozgul Ozel said that the repression would only strengthen the protest movement.
“There is one thing that Mr. Tayyip (Erdogan) should know: our number will not decrease with detentions and arrests, we will grow and grow and grow!” He swore.
The magnitude of the repression, he said, meant that there was no more room in the prisons of Istanbul “.
His words occurred shortly after the Minister of the Interior warned that there was “no concession” for those who “terrorize the streets”.
Until now, the courts had imprisoned 172 to “provoke recent social events, involved in violence, hidden the face with masks and use sticks”, the press agency of the state of Anadolu.
He said that 35 other people had obtained parole and one was released.
Overnight, there have been reports of dozens of additional arrests, according to articles on X by the unions and the movements of young people, although there was no immediate update of the Ministry of the Interior.
Erdogan himself remained provocative for a week in the demonstrations, denouncing the rallies like “Terror of the Street”.
“Those who spread terror in the streets and want to set fire to this country has nowhere to go. The path they have taken is a dead end,” said Erdogan, who governed the member of NATO for a quarter of a century.
– “We are not terrorists” –
Although repression has not reduced the figures, the vast majority of students who joined a huge street rally on Tuesday had a covered face, said an AFP correspondent.
“We want the government to resign, we want our democratic rights, we are fighting for a freer turkey right now,” a 20 -year -old student in Mali told AFP.
“We are not terrorists, we are students and the reason why we are here is to exercise our democratic rights and defend democracy.”
Like most demonstrators, his face was covered and he refused to give his family name for fear of reprisals.
Another masked student called Lydia, 25, urged more people to go out in the streets, saying that the demonstrators were hunted “like the vermin”.
“All the Turks should go down the street, they hunt us like the vermin (while) you sit at home. Get out, take care of us! We are your students, we are your future,” she said, her obvious anger.
Unlike the previous days, the Ozel du CHP said there would be no rally at the town hall on Wednesday, but called demonstrators to rally instead on Saturday in the Maltepe Istanbul district to demand early elections.
BUR-HMW / SJW / FG
