More than 340 people arrested following mass protests in turkiye

More than 340 people arrested following mass protests in turkiye

More than 340 people were arrested following Turkiye’s biggest street protests in over a decade sparked by the detention of Istanbul’s powerful opposition mayor, a minister said on Saturday.

Hundreds of thousands of people hit the streets across the country late on Friday, sparking clashes with riot police in Turkiye’s three largest cities: Istanbul, the capital Ankara and the western coastal city of Izmir.

Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said “343 suspects were caught in the protests that took place in Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, Adana, Antalya, Canakkale, Eskisehir, Konya and Edirne,” warning that those who sought to sow “chaos and provocation.. will definitely not be tolerated! ”

It was the third straight night that protesters rallied in support of Ekrem İmamoğlu — President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s biggest political rival, whose arrest on Wednesday triggered a massive show of defiance that spread from capital Istanbul to more than 50 of Turkiye’s 81 provinces.

During the evening, fierce clashes broke out between protesters and riot police, who fired tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannonto disperse them in Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir.

Third night in custody

After spending his third night in custody, Mr. Imamoglu — who was arrested just days before the CHP was to name him their candidate for the 2028 presidential race — began speaking to police on Saturday morning in connection with the “terror” probe, party sources said.

Already named in a list of legal probes, Mr. Imamoglu — who was resoundingly re-elected last year — has been accused alongside six others of “aiding and abetting a terrorist organisation” — namely the banned Kurdish militant group PKK.

Mr. Imamoglu is also under investigation for “bribery, extortion, corruption, aggravated fraud, and illegally obtaining personal data for profit as part of a criminal organisation” along with 99 other suspects.

He was questioned by police for six hours Friday about the graft allegations, the party said.

“Mr. Imamoglu denies all the charges against him,” one of his lawyers, Mehmet Pehlivan said.

“The detention was aimed at undermining Mr. Imamoglu’s reputation in the eyes of society,” he wrote on X early on Saturday, saying both probes were “based on untrue allegations” and “a violation of the right to a fair trial”.

Demonstrators across the country were due to rally again on Saturday night.

In a message on X sent via his lawyers, Mr. Imamoglu said he was “honoured and proud” of the demonstrators who hit the streets in more than 50 of Turkiye’s 81 provinces, saying they were “protecting our republic, our democracy, the future of a just Turkiye, and the will of our nation”.

Addressing the crowds outside City Hall in Istanbul on Friday night, Ozgur Ozel, who heads the main opposition CHP, said 3,00,000 people had joined the demonstration in defiance of a protest ban and a sharp warning from Mr. Erdogan that Turkiye would not tolerate “street terror”.