By South China Morning Post | Created at 2025-03-20 22:51:32 | Updated at 2025-03-21 13:45:21
14 hours ago
Thousands of Turks ramped up protests on Thursday despite a ban on street gatherings over what they called the undemocratic detention of Istanbul’s mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, as the opposition sought to pin the blame on President Tayyip Erdogan.
Some protesters clashed with police in Ankara, Izmir and Istanbul, including at universities, and many rallied at a municipal headquarters in Istanbul after authorities erected barricades blocking several streets across the country.
The move against the popular two-term mayor caps a months-long legal crackdown on opposition figures that has been criticised as a politicised attempt to hurt their electoral prospects and silence dissent, charges the government denies.
Erdogan, in his first comments on the detention, dismissed opposition criticism as “theatrics” and “slogans” for which the country had no time.
But in an interview, Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) that includes Imamoglu, said Erdogan feared facing the mayor in a vote and wanted to “take him out of the game” and cut his party’s ties with the city.
