Turkey’s opposition on Sunday called for early elections and the release of jailed İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, seeking to maintain momentum after more than a week of mass protests sparked by his arrest, Agence France-Presse reported.
İmamoğlu, widely seen as President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s main political rival, was detained on March 19 on corruption charges that his supporters say are politically motivated. His subsequent jailing triggered nightly protests in İstanbul and other cities, drawing the largest crowds seen in Turkey in over a decade.
On Saturday the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) organized a massive rally in İstanbul’s Maltepe district, which party officials said drew hundreds of thousands. The protest took place ahead of Eid al-Fitr, the Muslim holiday that marks the end of Ramadan.
With public offices closed for the holiday period, CHP leader Özgür Özel launched a signature campaign demanding İmamoğlu’s release and calling for snap elections. He began the drive in İmamoğlu’s home region on Turkey’s Black Sea coast.
“God is my witness that Ekrem İmamoğlu’s crime is to be Tayyip Erdoğan’s rival,” Özel said.
The CHP announced that rallies would continue in a different Turkish province each weekend and in various districts of İstanbul on Wednesdays.
“Those who think we will not celebrate the holiday are very wrong. We will definitely find a way to be together,” İmamoğlu said in a message shared by his lawyers on social media.
Özel returned to İstanbul later Sunday to visit İmamoğlu and other detainees in Silivri Prison. “This country will be as democratic as Germany,” he said, vowing accountability for the arrests.
Among the other detainees is İmamoğlu adviser Mahir Polat, who has reportedly been hospitalized with a heart condition, according to his lawyer.
The government’s response to the protests — including mass detentions, heavy police presence and restrictions on assembly — has drawn concern from rights groups and foreign officials.
Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said last week that 1,879 people had been detained since the protests began, with 260 placed in pretrial detention.
Among those arrested is 22-year-old university student Sinan Can, whose father, Sinan Karahan, said it would be the first holiday he spent without his son.
“These children were born when this party was in power, grew up under this government. They are not happy with its practices, and they are rising up,” Karahan told AFP.
Authorities have used tear gas, pepper spray and rubber bullets to disperse protesters in İstanbul, Ankara and other cities. Erdoğan has described the demonstrations as “street terror.”
Marta Kos, enlargement commissioner of the European Union, said the arrests and treatment of protesters raise concerns about Turkey’s commitments to democratic norms.
“Freedom of assembly is a fundamental right,” she said, emphasizing that Turkey must uphold the values it has pledged to in its EU membership bid.