Tens of thousands of demonstrators have taken to the streets in growing protests across Turkey, after the main rival to the country’s president was arrested and charged with corruption in a move that has been widely decried as politically motivated.
Ekrem Imamoglu is seen as the main political challenger to Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and was nominated as the presidential candidate for the main opposition party the Republican People’s Party (CHP) for elections in 2028 despite his arrest.
Mr Imamoglu was elected mayor of Turkey’s largest city in March 2019, in a major blow to Mr Erdogan and the president’s governing Justice and Development Party (AKP), which had controlled Istanbul for a quarter of a century. Mr Erdogan’s party pushed to void the municipal election results in the city of 16 million, alleging irregularities. The challenge resulted in a repeat of the election a few months later, which Mr Imamoglu also won.
The mayor retained his seat following local elections last year, during which the CHP made significant gains against the AKP.
His detention has sparked the largest wave of street demonstrations in Turkey in more than a decade, and deepened concerns over democracy and the rule of law in the country, with people taking to the streets for a sixth day straight on Monday.
Here is what we know about the protests so far.
Turkey’s largest cities have been rocked by protests for nearly a week as hundreds of thousands of protesters turned out in support of Mr Imamoglu.
The daily protests have escalated since they began on Wednesday after Mr Imamoglu was detained, with police deploying water cannon, teargas and pepper spray as well as firing plastic pellets at protesters in Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir. Some of the people demonstrating hurled stones, fireworks and other missiles at riot police.
A total of 1,133 people have been detained. The interior minister, Ali Yerlikaya, said more than 100 police officers had been injured.
The Disk-Basin-Is union said that at least eight reporters and photojournalists had been detained in what it said was an “attack on press freedoms and the people’s right to learn the truth”.
The protests were sparked when Mr Imamoglu, the current mayor of Istanbul, was detained on Wednesday on suspicion of corruption.
On Sunday, as he received CHP’s official nomination to run for president, Mr Imamoglu was formally arrested on corruption charges and jailed pending trial.
CHP leader Ozgur Ozel said: “Imamoglu is on the one hand in prison and on the other hand on the way to the presidency.”
Mr Imamoglu was jailed on suspicion of running a criminal organisation, accepting bribes, extortion, illegally recording personal data, and bid-rigging. A request for him to be imprisoned on terror-related charges was denied.
