Turkish police have detained 343 people during overnight protests in several cities against the detention of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, the Interior Ministry said Saturday.
Demonstrations took place across the country, including in Istanbul and the capital Ankara, the ministry said in a statement. It said the detentions were made to prevent “disrupting of public order” and warned that authorities would not tolerate “chaos and provocation.”
The Republican People’s Party (CHP), of which Imamoglu is a member, said the detentions were politically motivated and urged supporters to demonstrate lawfully. The protests are the biggest in Turkey since the massive demonstrations of 2013 to protest the demolition of Istanbul’s Gezi Park, Kurdistan 24 reported.
“There is a great anger. People are spontaneously taking to the streets. Some young people are being politicized for the first time in their lives,” said Yuksel Taskin, a lawmaker from the CHP.
“The feeling of being trapped — economically, socially, politically, and even culturally — was already widespread,” journalist and author Kemal Can told AFP.
The protests began on March 19 after Mayor Imamoglu was detained at his home that morning on terrorism and corruption charges. “I see today during my interrogation that I and my colleagues are faced with unimaginable accusations and slanders,” Imamoglu said in his defense during a counter-terrorism police interrogation, a court document viewed by Reuters showed.
Hellbound and Down 