Turkey opposition ramps up rallies as Swedish journalist jailed
The arrest of Istanbul’s opposition mayor Ekrem Imamoglu sparked the most significant anti-government protests in Turkey in over a decade
Turkey’s opposition on Sunday worked to keep up the momentum of the protest movement triggered by the arrest of Istanbul’s mayor after a giant weekend rally, with a Swedish reporter the latest detained in a government crackdown.
The arrest on March 19 of Istanbul’s opposition mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, on corruption charges his supporters say are false, sparked the most significant anti-government protests in Turkey in over a decade in a major test for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
After over a week of nighttime street protests, the Republican People’s Party (CHP) on Saturday mobilised hundreds of thousands of people for a giant rally in Istanbul calling for the release of Imamoglu, seen as the candidate with the best chance of defeating Erdogan at the ballot box after almost a quarter of a century in power.
With Turkey entering several days of public holiday marking the end of Ramadan, the opposition has vowed to keep up the protest movement while switching tactics to more focused events.
CHP party leader Ozgur Ozel, a former pharmacist who has stepped in as the party’s main public flag-bearer as Imamoglu languishes in Silivri prison in Istanbul, announced on Saturday that protests would be held in a different one of Turkey’s 81 provinces every weekend and a different district of Istanbul every Wednesday.
“Those who think that we will not be able to celebrate the holiday are very wrong! Because we will definitely find a way to be together!” Imamoglu said in a message from prison transmitted through his lawyers on X.