Seven journalists detained for covering the mass protests that have gripped Turkey were arrested on Tuesday as the country braced for another day of unrest over the arrest of a top opposition figure.
Large crowds have taken to the streets daily since the March 19 move against İstanbul’s popular opposition mayor, Ekrem İmamoğlu, prompting nightly clashes with riot police that have spread across the country.
İmamoğlu, 53, of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), is widely seen as the only politician capable of defeating Turkey’s longtime leader, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, at the ballot box, but has now been stripped of his position and jailed because of a corruption probe that his supporters denounce as a “political coup.”
By Monday police had arrested 1,133 people, among them journalists, in connection with the protests, with a further 43 rounded up on Monday night, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said.
Early on Tuesday there were reports that seven out of the 10 journalists detained on Monday were given conditional release but the court reversed its decision and ruled for their arrest later in the day.
The arrested journalists are Agence France-Presse photographer Yasin Akgül, Now Haber reporter Ali Onur Tosun, photojournalists Bülent Kılıç and Kurtuluş Sarı, who works for the İstanbul Municipality, and journalists Zeynep Kuray and Hayri Tunç.
The journalists are accused of violating a law on meetings and demonstrations.
Three other journalists are still in police custody.
Riot police once again cracked down on protesters who gathered outside İstanbul City Hall for a sixth night Monday and also roughly dispersed a student sit-in on the Galata Bridge spanning the Golden Horn estuary, AFP correspondents and media reports said.
The unrest has continued despite a ban on protests in Turkey’s three biggest cities, with the prohibition in Ankara extended until April 1, the governor said Tuesday.
Amnesty: ‘Police violence deeply shocking’
Footage of the police crackdown has drawn a sharp response from rights groups.
Europe’s top rights body, the Council of Europe, issued a statement expressing concern about the “disproportionate use of force by the police,” also referring to the crackdown on journalists.
London-based rights watchdog Amnesty International also demanded an immediate halt to police violence, saying it had reviewed footage that was “deeply shocking.”
“The use of unnecessary and indiscriminate force by police against peaceful protesters in Turkey must immediately stop,” Amnesty International Secretary-General Agnes Callamard said on Monday.
It cited use of pepper spray, tear gas, water cannon and plastic bullets — “sometimes fired at close range at the face and upper body” — calling for a prompt investigation into such “unlawful acts of violence.”
Student groups — many of whom have announced a lecture boycott in Turkey’s main cities — announced a new gathering on Tuesday, with protesters called to join them at Istanbul’s Macka Park at 1400 GMT.
A doctors’ union also announced a march at 1630 GMT that would head towards City Hall.
At Monday’s rally opposition leader and CHP chairman Ozgur Ozel announced a boycott of 10 companies and organizations, among them pro-government TV channels that have avoided broadcasting protest images, along with a cafe chain known for being close to the government.
On Sunday İmamoğlu was overwhelmingly chosen as the CHP’s candidate for a 2028 presidential run, with observers saying it was the looming primary that triggered the move against him.
His jailing drew sharp condemnation from Berlin, which called it “totally unacceptable,” echoing comments from Paris, with concern also expressed by Athens and Brussels.
İmamoğlu has denounced the judicial moves against him as a political “execution without trial” but has vowed to fight on in several messages transmitted through his lawyers.
© Agence France-Presse