Turkish riot police on Thursday fired rubber bullets and tear gas as demonstrators protested near İstanbul City Hall over the detention of Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, Agence France-Presse correspondents at the scene said.
As a handful of protesters tried to make their way to central Taksim Square, scuffles broke out with police, who fired rubber bullets, said one correspondent who saw the weapons, heard them discharge and detected the distinctive smell of rubber.
A second correspondent at the scene said police “used rubber bullets and a lot of tear gas.”
Taksim Square, the iconic site of many of Turkey’s largest protests, has been cordoned off since İmamoğlu’s detention early Wednesday, with police on high alert to prevent any demonstrations there.
Addressing police from a stage near City Hall, opposition leader Özgür Özel, who heads the Republican People’s Party (CHP), warned them not to provoke protesters by firing tear gas or rubber bullets.
“If that happens, the Istanbul police will be held responsible,” he warned.
“Who are you to fire gas at the hope of Turkey?”
“Tayyip, resign!” shouted the crowd of several thousand, many of them university students, in a pointed message to Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
It was the second night that thousands of demonstrators defied a ban on protests to gather at City Hall to express their anger over the mayor’s detention as part of a graft and terror investigation.
“Mayor Ekrem is not involved in corruption or terrorism. He’s neither a thief nor a terrorist,” said Özel, warning Erdoğan that the wave of protests would not stop.
“Hey Erdoğan: We will be on the streets from now on. Be afraid of us, the streets are ours,” he warned.
“I didn’t fill this square and these streets. You did. They are full because of you,” he said.
“We will not give up this struggle until we free İmamoğlu and the other imprisoned mayors of Istanbul’s districts” who were also detained on Wednesday.
In several areas of the city, including the upmarket Nişantaşı neighborhood, residents could be heard banging pots and pans in protest, while cars honked in solidarity with the mayor, another AFP correspondent said.