File image.
Hundreds of thousands of protesters took to the streets of Istanbul and several other major Turkish cities on March 23 for the fifth night in a row to demonstrate against the arrest of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s main political rival, Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu.
Imamoglu was arrested on May 19 on corruption and terrorism charges before he was expected to be nominated as the Republican People’s Party (CHP) main candidate for the presidency.
Earlier on March 24, the popular opposition leader was jailed and stripped of his duties pending trial over the corruption charges.
The detention of Imamoglu didn’t deter his supporters, who flocked in hundreds to polling stations for the election in response to the court ruling.
The CHP also set up solidarity boxes where non-members could show their support. By late March 23, more than 13 million had done so, according to the party.
In a post to the X social network, Imamoglu praised the results, saying that the people had told Erdogan: “Enough is enough.”
“That ballot box will arrive and the nation will deliver a slap to the administration it will never forget,” he added.
The mass protests sparked by the government’s crackdown on Imamoglu and some hundred of his affiliates, including journalists, businessmen and other CHP members, continued despite a ban on gatherings in Istanbul and a series of arrests.
The last wave of protests saw the police using pepper spray and firing rubber bullets into the crowd that gathered outside Istanbul’s city hall. The Interior Ministry announced later that some 323 people were detained in the evening over disturbances at protests.
The crackdown on Imamoglu dealt a serious blow to the Turkish economy, with the government reportedly spending nearly $12 billion defending the lira.
Erdogan and his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) faced similar challenges in the past. However, there are some new factors to this crisis. The opposition appears to be more willing to escalate and the worsening economic crisis has weakened the popularity of the AKP, which has been in power in a way or another for more than two decades.
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chp party are the successors to attaturk. but he was a western puppet so chp are the liberal progressive wing of the globalists in turkiye
i hope they succeed in overthrowing erdogan.
the zionist bastard erdogan must be overthrown.
the usual game plan . turn your enemies against each other facilitate and enable it and then act innocent.
the erdog of ankara is on its last legs. wuff wuff and take the rabid mutt to the pound already.
erdogan why you dont send your ignorant supporters to the streets? we do not scare from you , you are scum and dictator, send your scum akp,mhp supporters to streets we will
fight , fight, fight
ya istiklal ya ölüm i hope you will finish like menderes on the tree or mussolini or saddam.
once again , the peoples will is defeated by the state . the powers that be do not care if the people protest . they will kill all to keep thier power . dead bodies bring happiness to the rulers . gaza is an a nice example .
dictator errordog-gone must pay the price!!