In Turkey, despite the forbidden, mass demonstrations against the arrest of Istanbul mayor İmamoğlu. The authorities warn of protests – and are increasingly acting against statements on social media.
In Turkey, the pressure on people who have been demonstrating against the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu has been growing in Turkey. The government warned of further street protests.
Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya wrote on platform X that so far, 53 people have been investigated in connection with the protests, and 16 police officers had also been injured.
In addition, the security authorities tightened their procedures in connection with contributions on social media. As Yerlikaya continued, authorities had identified 326 suspicious owners of online accounts for “incitement to criminal offenses”, 72 lived abroad. 54 suspects have now been arrested, and the other suspects are also used.
However, the restrictions on social media and intelligence services in Istanbul that have persisted since Wednesday have been lifted again. The bandwid throttling ended after 42 hours, as cyberrecht activist Yaman Akdeniz confirmed on X. In this time, access to portals and services such as X, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Tiktok, Telegram, Signal and WhatsApp from Istanbul was not possible.
Impose more cities Demonstration bans
Despite a continued ban on demonstration, many people in Istanbul took the street again on Thursday evening against the arrest of the CHP politician İmamoğlu. The protests had concentrated on the university site and the town hall of Istanbul, and there were occasional violent clashes.
Parliamentary members merged into a march during the demonstrations in the capital Ankara. According to the media and opposition politicians, plastic floors were used against demonstrators. The government's communication directorate described this as false information.
In the meantime, other cities were banned from demonstrating. In Ankara and in the port city of Izmir, this applies according to the authorities up to and including Tuesday.
“Perceive constitutional rights”
CHP boss Özel nevertheless renewed his protest call on Friday: “I invite tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands and millions to demonstrate peacefully, to express our democratic reaction and to perceive our constitutional rights.”
Özel said to the Turkish government: “Those who say that it is irresponsible to call people on the streets I replace: We are not those who fill these streets and places. It is your lawlessness and injustices that have brought people onto the street.”
Turkish Minister of Justice Yilmaz Tunç described the new calls as irresponsible. “Freedom of assembly and demonstration are fundamental rights. But calling up protests during an ongoing investigation is illegal and unacceptable,” wrote Tunç on X. He called on to rest and warned that the “independent and impartial judiciary” rate the case.
Terror and Corruption allegations Against İmamoğlu
On Wednesday morning, İmamoğlu was arrested together with many other people. The public prosecutor had justified this with terrorist and corruption allegations.
The government accuse the government behind the arrest in order to eliminate a political competitor. The Mayor of Istanbul is considered the most potentially promising challenger of the authoritarian incumbent Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in the presidential election scheduled for 2028.
