Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday that protests against the imprisonment of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamogl have become “a movement of violence” And the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) will be responsible for injured police and property damage. This is reported by TASR based on Reuters report.
Erdogan said after the government meeting that CHP should stop “provoking” citizens. “As a nation, we surprised the events that occurred after the call to protest the opposition leader after a corruption operation in Istanbul has turned into a violence movement,” Erdogan said.
“The main opposition party is responsible for our injured police officers, broken windows of our dealers and damaged public property. They will be responsible for all this, politically in Parliament and legally by the judiciary,” added.
Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya accused some protesters of “terrorizing” on the streets and endangering the State Security on Monday. According to his claims, 1133 people have been arrested during five days of protests and the demonstrators injured 123 cops.
Last week, the police arrested the Mayor of Istanbul Ekrem Imamogl for suspicion of corruption and aiding a terrorist group. The detention of the current President in the country has triggered the largest demonstrations in the last decade. The opposition was described by the police accusation politically motivated.
Despite the ban on gathering in many cities on Sunday night, hundreds of thousands of people continued in protests. CHP representatives claim that After the police interventions, several people ended up hospitalized in the hospital.
