Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Friday called ongoing protests against the detention of the mayor of İstanbul, his strongest political rival, “street terror,” vowing that Turkey would not be cowed by it.
“Turkey will not surrender to street terror,” Erdoğan said, as İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) called for protests, Turkey’s worst street demonstrations in years, to go nationwide later on Friday.
İmamoğlu and to date 89 others, including two district mayors in İstanbul, city officials, businesspeople and journalists, were detained as part of two investigations led by the İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office on Wednesday. They face accusations of corruption and terrorism, which the opposition says are politically motivated.
The mayor’s detention has sparked two days of protests that began in İstanbul and quickly spread to at least 32 of Turkey’s 81 provinces, leading to detentions and skirmishes between the police and the protestors.
CHP leader Özgür Özel on Friday called for a third nightly protest outside İstanbul City Hall at 1730 GMT, urging demonstrators to take to the streets across Turkey at the same time, despite the justice minister warning such calls were “unlawful and unacceptable.”
Erdoğan said the government would not tolerate street protests and accused the opposition party of being associated with corruption, marginal groups and terrorist organizations.
“We see that an anti-corruption operation in İstanbul is being used as an excuse to stir unrest in our streets. I want it to be known that we will not allow a handful of opportunists to bring unrest to Turkey just to protect their plundering schemes,” Erdoğan said.
Critics accuse Erdoğan of attempting to sideline his most powerful political rival through the use of the judicial power.
“Pointing to the streets instead of courtrooms to defend theft, plunder, lawlessness and fraud is a grave irresponsibility,” Erdoğan said. “Just as we have not surrendered to street terrorism until now, we will not bow to vandalism in the future, either.”
On Friday İstanbul’s governor closed off the Galata and Atatürk bridges, which cross the Golden Horn estuary and are the main access routes to the historic peninsula where City Hall is located.
‘Opposition dramas’
A day earlier Erdoğan also shrugged off the unrest, calling the outrage over the mayor’s detention the opposition’s “drama.”
“The opposition’s efforts to present its problems with the law as the country’s biggest problem are the height of hypocrisy,” he said.
Turkey, he said, “has no time to waste on the opposition’s drama.”
Özel, however, told protestors on Thursday that no one should expect CHP to do politics in halls or buildings from now on.
“We’ll be on the streets and in the squares,” he said.
The pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) also said it would join Friday’s rally in front of city hall in İstanbul.
Writing on X, Justice Minister Yılmaz Tunç on Friday warned that calling for street protests was illegal.
“Calls for street protests based on ongoing judicial investigations are unlawful and unacceptable. Those in positions of responsibility should show more caution,” he wrote.
The Anka news agency reported on Friday that the mayor’s interrogation began on Friday, the third day of his detention. He can be detained without charges for up to four days, according to Turkish law.
CHP: Primary to move forward
Despite İmamoğlu’s detention, the CHP vowed it would press ahead with its primary on Sunday at which it would formally nominate him as its candidate for the 2028 race.
The party said it would open the process to anyone who wanted to vote, not just party members, saying, “Come to the ballot box and say ‘no’ to the coup attempt!”
Observers said the government could seek to block the primary to prevent a further show of support for İmamoğlu.
“If a large number of people show up and vote for İmamoğlu, it will further legitimize him domestically,” Gönül Tol, head of the Turkish studies program at the Washington-based Middle East Institute, told Agence France-Presse.
“It could really move things in a direction that Erdoğan doesn’t want.”
The CHP will also hold an extraordinary party congress on April 6, Özel announced on Friday, due to the growing pressure on the party ahead of the primary on March 23.
By Friday morning the restrictions on social media and internet access that had been in place since İmamoğlu’s arrest were lifted, according to internet access monitor EngelliWeb.
The move against İmamoğlu has dealt a heavy blow to the Turkish lira, and on Friday the BIST 100 stock exchange was trading lower, shedding 6.63 percent shortly after 1200 GMT.
© Agence France-Presse