Turkish authorities have detained 1,133 people throughout Turkey since the beginning of the protests five days ago against the detention of the mayor of Istanbul, Ekrem Imamoglu, said Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya on Monday (24).
triggered the biggest street protests in Türkiye in over a decade. On Sunday, awaiting trial, on charges of corruption he denies.
Despite the prohibition of streets in the streets in many cities, demonstrations against the mostly peaceful government continued for the fifth consecutive night on Sunday, with the participation of hundreds of thousands of people.
Yerlikaya said 123 police officers had been injured during the protests so far, adding that the government would not allow “terror on the streets.”
Among the detainees are nine journalists who covered the protests in several cities, the Turkey journalists’ union said on Monday.
It was not immediately clear because the journalists were arrested. A photographer from the Agence France Presse (AFP) team is among the detained journalists, the union said in an X post.
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The Povo Republican Party (CHP), of Imamoglu, the main opposition party, has called protests against the court decision to arrest the mayor they classify as politicized and undemocratic.
Imamoglu called the accusations he faces “unimaginable slander” and also called protests across the country.
Erdogan said last week that the government would not accept “the disturbance of public order.” His government denies that investigations have political motivation and states that the courts are independent.
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OMER CELIK, AK Party spokesman, Erdogan’s ruling party, said on Monday that the CP call for protests aimed to cover the opposition’s failures.
“Democratic protest is a (fundamental) right, but the language used by the CHP is not the language of democratic protest,” said Celik.
