ISTANBUL, - Thousands of Turks were expected to ramp up
protests on Thursday over what they called the undemocratic detention of
Istanbul's mayor Ekrem Imamoglu despite a ban on gatherings, police barricades
and dozens of detentions over social media posts.
Imamoglu, President Tayyip Erdogan's main political rival,
was taken in on Wednesday facing charges of graft and aiding a terrorist group,
a move that the opposition condemned as a "coup attempt" and that
sparked an initial round of demonstrations.
The move against the popular two-term mayor caps a
months-long legal crackdown on opposition figures across the country which has
been criticised as a politicised attempt to hurt their electoral prospects and
silence dissent.
"We must stand against this evil as a nation,"
Imamoglu said on social media platform X, calling on members of the judiciary
and Erdogan's ruling party to fight injustice.
"These events have gone beyond our parties, political
ideals. The process is now concerning our people, namely your families. It is
time to raise our voices," he said.
The government denies the accusations and has warned against
tying Erdogan or politics to Imamoglu's arrest, after which it imposed a
four-day ban on gatherings and restricted access to some social media to
restrict communications.
Police on Thursday blocked off roads and stationed trucks
with water cannons near the police station where the mayor is held and other
areas of Turkey's largest city.
"They hastily detained our mayor, whom we elected with
our votes," said Ali Izar, an opposition supporter on his way to work in
central Istanbul. "I do not think this is a democratic practice and I
condemn it."
Though civil disobedience has been dramatically curbed in
Turkey since the nationwide Gezi Park protests against Erdogan's government in
2013, which prompted a violent state crackdown, thousands of protesters took to
the streets and university campuses on Wednesday in Istanbul, Ankara and other
cities.
Crowds had chanted anti-government slogans and, at the main
municipality building in Istanbul, they hung banners of Imamoglu and the
nation's founding leader Mustafa Kemal Ataturk alongside Turkish flags.
SOCIAL MEDIA CRACKDOWN
The detention of Imamoglu, 54, who leads Erdogan in some
opinion polls, came days before his Republican People's Party (CHP) was set to
elect him its next presidential candidate.
"The people will give their response again," said
another Imamoglu supporter, Yusuf Demirci, 34, in Istanbul. "As you saw
yesterday, everyone is on the streets and in the squares. The squares and the
ballot box will be the result of this. I say, the righteous one will win."
The detention sparked a crash and partial recovery in the
lira currency on Wednesday, which by Thursday was worth 38 to the dollar,
compared to 36.67 beforehand. Amid worries about eroding rule of law and
concerns over slower rate cuts, bank shares in particular tumbled on the
Istanbul bourse.
Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said that 37 people had been
detained and accused of "provocative social media posts inciting crime and
hatred" after the detention, adding some 261 social media accounts,
including 62 based abroad, were also identified.
Authorities also seized a construction company co-owned by
Imamoglu - Imamoglu Construction, Trade and Industry - and handed control over
to a court, according to the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's office and
financial crime investigation reports.
Istanbul municipality staff made up the bulk of the 105
people arrested along with Imamoglu.
Reporting by Ece Toksabay, Mert Ozkan, Mehmet Emin Caliskan
and Ali Kucukgocmen; Additional reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu and Huseyin
Hayatsever in Ankara; Writing by Jonathan Spicer; Editing by Alex Richardson,
Andrew Cawthorne, Alexandra Hudson
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