Rollies of the Turkish opposition in defense of the mayor of Istanbul imprisoned in mass protest | Turkey

The main opposition of Türkiye gathered in defense of the mayor of Istanbul imprisoned, Ekrem i̇mamoğluIn a move to support the greatest antigovernative manifestations for years.

Hundreds of thousands of people participated in the protest called by the head of the Republican People’s Party (CHP) in a place far from the center of the city of Istanbul. The party leader, Özgur Özel, said that 2.2 million people participated.

At the beginning of this week, Özel had called the end of the night gatherings outside the Town Hall of Istanbul, where hundreds of thousands of thousands of thousands attended while small groups of demonstrators often collided with the police. The security forces have used tears, water cannons and pepper spray on protesters, which the human rights watch has described as an unjustified “use of the police forces”.

“Turkey is facing one of its most serious socio -political upheavals for decades,” said Human Rights Watch. The groups of students and other small groups of demonstrators have continued to despise disparate street protests on the days when the events outside the town hall have finished.

The Turkish authorities arrested 1,900 people in the 10 days since İMamuğlu was held on charges of corruption, before being removed from the position by the Turkish interior Ministry and sent to a high security structure on the margins of Istanbul.

Many of those held by the security forces were seized in Raid Predawn, including 13 journalists. Ten photojournalists were arrested for having covered the protests before being freed later in the week, hours before the Minister of Justice, Yılmaz Tunç, met journalists, offering a defense of Turkey’s record on press freedom.

The correspondent of the BBC lowers has been deported After covering the events, before the direction of Turkey’s presidential communications claimed to have been expelled in order not to have an accreditation of the press. The authorities also arrested a Swedish journalist who flew to Türkiye to cover protests. Two other Turkish journalists were also detained, as well as the lawyer of İMamoğlu, who was subsequently issued conditionally.

Özel told the French newspaper Le Monde that Saturday gatherings would become a weekly event in different cities in Türkiye, while the party would have had similar meetings in Istanbul every Wednesday.

Özel said: “We believe the arrests will slow down from now.”

He added that he was “ready to take the risk of spending from 8 to 10 years in prison, if necessary because if we do not stop this attempt called the coup, it will mean the end of the polls”.

̇Mamamlu has accused foreign leaders, especially those Europenot to have talked about his detention in a message from prison published by the New York Times. He said: “Washington has simply expressed” concerns about recent arrests and protests “in Türkiye. With few exceptions, European leaders have not offered a strong response”.

The incarcerated mayor had ruled Istanbul since 2019, winning in a second landslide vote after the politicians aligned with the president, Recep Tayyip ErdoganHe asked that his initial victory be canceled. After winning a re -election once again last year, İMamamlu is seen as the only candidate able to beat Erdoğan in the elections scheduled in the coming years.

On the same day the mayor of Istanbul was imprisoned, 15 million people proved to vote in a symbolic primary to appoint him as a candidate for the CHP for the president.

Imamoglu he wrote: “By realizing that he cannot defeat me in the polls, the president of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has resorted to other means: having his main political opponent arrested on charges of corruption, corruption, guiding a criminal network and helping the outlegged of the Kurdistan workers’ party, even if the accusations have no credible evidence.”

He added: “My detention has marked a new phase in the diatitarism and the use of arbitrary power of Turkey. A country with a long democratic tradition must now face the serious risk of overcoming the point of no return”.