Large protests over the arrest of the mayor of Istanbul while the authorities ban demonstrations

Protests by thousands and thousands of people against the arrest of Ekrem Imamoglu, mayor of Istanbul and opponent of the Recep Tayyip Erdogan regime, have intensified despite the ban on street rallies decreed by the Turkish central government.

Protesters clashed with police in Ankara, Izmir and Istanbul, including at universities, and many gathered at a municipal building in Istanbul after authorities erected barricades blocking several streets across the country.

Imamoglu, 54, Erdogan's main political rival, was arrested on Wednesday on charges of corruption and aiding a terrorist group, a move the opposition condemned as an ‘attempted coup’ and which triggered an initial round of demonstrations and criticism from European leaders.

The move against the popular two-term mayor ends a months-long legal offensive against opposition figures that has been criticised as a politicised attempt to damage their electoral prospects and silence dissent, accusations the government denies. 

In his first comments on the arrest, Erdogan dismissed opposition criticism as ‘theatrics’ and ‘sloganeering’ for which the country has no time.

But in an interview, Ozgur Ozel, president of the main opposition party, the Republican People's Party (CHP), which includes Imamoglu, said that Erdogan was afraid of facing the mayor in a vote and wanted to ‘take him out of the game’ and cut his party's ties with the city.

He said that any move to prevent Imamoglu from standing as a presidential candidate in the next election would only strengthen opposition support, adding that the CHP would nominate him as its candidate on Sunday in a scheduled vote. 

‘We believe Imamoglu will win. If his candidacy is blocked, we believe this will translate into much greater support,’ Ozel told Reuters in his first interview with foreign media since his arrest. 

‘This nation has never forgiven anyone who has tried to raise the legitimacy of the ballot box,’ he said next to a small room at Istanbul's municipal headquarters, with a crowd gathered outside, where he intends to spend the night until Imamoglu is released. 

Elections are not scheduled until 2028, but they should be held earlier if Erdogan, 71, who has ruled Turkey for 22 years, wishes to run again. Imamoglu leads the president in some polls. 

At a dinner for former party members in Ankara, Erdogan claimed that the opposition was seeking to cover up its mistakes. Its problems ‘are not the country's problems, but those of a handful of opportunists in their headquarters,’ he said.

The executive has warned against linking Erdogan or politics to Imamoglu's arrest, and says the judiciary is independent in response to criticism that the arrests are politically motivated. 

The authorities imposed a four-day ban on meetings and restricted access to some social networks to curb communications, and dozens of people were arrested for what the authorities called provocative posts. 

Police used water cannons to disperse crowds in the capital, Ankara, and in the western city of Izmir on Thursday night. The government reported that six police officers were injured during the demonstrations in Istanbul, the country's largest city. 

From inside the police station where he was being held, Imamoglu had previously called on members of the judiciary and Erdogan's ruling party to fight against the injustice of his arrest. 

‘These events have transcended our parties or political ideals,’ he said on social network X. ’It is time to raise our voices.’ 

Civil disobedience has been drastically curbed in Turkey since the nationwide protests in Gezi Park against the Erdogan government in 2013, which led to violent state repression. 

But protesters have chanted anti-government slogans over the past two days and, in Istanbul, have hung banners of Imamoglu and the nation's founding leader, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, alongside Turkish flags. 

‘They hastily arrested our mayor, whom we elected with our votes,’ said Ali Izar, an opposition supporter in central Istanbul. ’I don't think this is a democratic practice and I condemn it.’ 

The arrest caused the lira to fall and then partially recover on Wednesday, reaching almost 38 to the dollar on Thursday, compared to 36.67 previously. 

Amid concerns about the erosion of the rule of law and worries about slower rate cuts, bank stocks in particular fell on the Istanbul stock exchange, and the Central Bank raised its overnight rate.

On Thursday, the authorities confiscated a construction company co-owned by Imamoglu and handed its control over to a court, according to the Istanbul General Prosecutor's Office and reports of the financial crimes investigation. 

Most of the 105 people detained along with Imamoglu were municipal employees.