The Turkish opposition worked on Sunday to maintain the momentum of the protest movement launched by the arrest of the mayor of Istanbul by putting pressure for the first elections as well as his release, with a Swedish journalist the last detainee in a repression of the government.
The arrest of March 19 of the mayor of the opposition of Istanbul, Ekrem Imamoglu, on accusations of corruption, his supporters say they were false, triggered the most important anti-government demonstrations in Turkey in addition to a decade in a major test for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
After more than a week of night street demonstrations, the Republican People's Party (CHP) mobilized hundreds of thousands of people on Saturday for a giant rally in Istanbul calling for the Liberation of Imamoglu.
He was considered the candidate with the best chance of defeating Erdogan in the polls after almost a quarter of a century in power, the president showing no sign of wish to withdraw before the elections due in 2028.
Turkey entering several days of public vacation marking the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, the opposition promised to maintain the protest movement while changing tactics to more targeted events.
The chief of the CHP party, Ozgur Ozel, a former pharmacist who intervened as the Public Drapeau Public Bearer while Imamoglu languishes in Silivri prison in Istanbul, launched a campaign to collect signatures for a petition calling for the liberation of Imamoglu and the first elections.
“God is my witness according to which the crime of Ekrem Imamoglu is to be the rival of Tayyip Erdogan,” said Ozel starting the road in the native region of the Black Sea of the mayor now suspended in eastern Turkey.
On Saturday, Ozel announced that demonstrations would take place in another of the 81 provinces of Turkey every weekend and a different district from Istanbul every Wednesday.
“Those who think we will not be able to celebrate the holidays are very wrong! Because we will certainly find a way to be together!” Imamoglu declared in a prison message transmitted through his lawyers on X.
– “Force to defeat him” –
The government responded to the demonstrations by a repression that disturbed the allies and the rights to defend the rights of the NATO member, dozens of young people spending the holidays behind bars, detained journalists and foreign journalists detained or expelled.
On Sunday, Ozel later returned to Istanbul to visit Imamoglu and dozens of other young detainees in Silivri prison, promising to “put into account” the officials.
“This country will be as democratic as Germany,” he promised.
Imamoglu advisor Mahir Polat, who was arrested in the same case, was hospitalized for a heart disease, his lawyer Erkam Erdem was quoted by the Cumhuriyet newspaper.
Swedish journalist Joakim Medin, who works for the Dagens newspaper, etc., was arrested upon arrival in Türkiye to cover the demonstrations on Thursday. He is detained for accusations related to terrorism and to “insult the president,” said the Turkish presidency.
The editor of his newspaper, Andreas Gustavsson, described the accusations as “absurd”, telling AFP that “practicing journalism should not be a crime”.
The Swedish Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenegard, told public radio that her case was an “absolute priority” and promised to raise it with her Turkish counterpart.
The Turkish authorities accuse Medin of participating in a demonstration by the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in Stockholm in January 2023 during which a puppet representing Erdogan was mocked.
But his wife Sofie Axelsson said: “The accusations are false, it's a journalist, nothing else.”
– “they get up” –
Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said on Thursday that 1,879 people had been detained in demonstrations since March 19, including 260 in pre -trial detention.
Father Sinan Karahan said he would spend the holidays for the first time without his 22 -year -old son Sinan Can, a academic student, who received Tosilivri prison after being arrested during a demonstration in Istanbul.
“These children were born when this party was in power, grew up under this government. They are not satisfied with its practices and that they go up,” he told AFP, saying that he had visited his son in prison on Friday and that he was in good health.
Erdogan previously marked the “Street Terror” demonstrations. The authorities have used tear gas, pepper spray and rubber bullets to disperse the demonstrators.
Marta Kos, EU enlargement commissioner, whom Turkey still wants to join officially, said that the arrests and deportations of journalists were going against the “commitments and the democratic tradition” of Turkey.
“Freedom of assembly is a fundamental right”. The Turkish authorities have embarked on their quest to join the block, she added.
Bur-SJW / GIV
