A video showing a protester in a Pikachu costume running from police during a protest in southern Turkey over the arrest of İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu has gone viral on social media.
The clip shows the costumed protester in a bright yellow inflatable suit fleeing with a group of mostly dark-clad demonstrators. Despite the suit’s short, inflated legs, the person manages to keep up with the crowd at an impressive speed.
The original video was captured by İsmail Koçeroğlu, a photojournalist at Akdeniz University in Antalya, according to 404 media.
Koçeroğlu also shared another photo on Instagram showing Pikachu posing with both protesters and others.
Writer and political commentator Adam Schwarz shared the video on Bluesky and wrote, “Pikachu was spotted amongst anti-Erdoğan protesters fleeing from police in Antalya, Turkey last night.” Re-posting the clip on X, a user of the platform joked, “The Pokemon have risen against Erdogan.”
Following the video’s circulation, AI-generated images of Pikachu running from police quickly appeared online and were widely shared on social media.
İmamoğlu is seen as President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s strongest potential political challenger. His arrest has sparked nights of street protests on a scale unseen in Turkey since 2013.
Erdoğan called the ongoing protests “street terror” and vowed to fight back, with police using tear gas, pepper spray and rubber bullets to disperse the protestors.
Turkey’s repressive response to the protests has been sharply condemned by rights groups and drawn criticism from abroad.
In Washington US Secretary of State Marco Rubio raised concerns over Ankara’s handling of the protests, and French President Emmanuel Macron denounced its “systematic attacks” on opposition figures and freedom of assembly.
So far, some 1,879 people have been detained since March 19, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said on Thursday.