On Wednesday, the city council in Istanbul elected a temporary mayor who will represent the detainee Ekrema Imamogl. Thousands of people have been protesting against the arrest of an important personality of the Turkish opposition despite the ban on the seventh day. According to Reuters and AFP reports, TASR reports.
The new temporary mayor of Nuri Aslan won 177 votes in the 314-member Istanbul city council. The city will drive until the end of the mandate of Imamogl. According to Reuters, the election of the temporary mayor will prevent the government from appointing the largest Turkish city of its nominee.
The Republican People’s Party announced on Wednesday that the next night protest will no longer call, but will invite people to participate in a larger Saturday gathering. It is not yet clear whether students who play an important role in the protests will stop protesting and are distanced from the opposition supporters.
In Turkey, the biggest demonstrations have been burning since March 19, when the police arrested Imamogl on charges of corruption and connection to the terrorist group. Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said the police arrested 1418 demonstrators to Tuesday afternoon, including eleven journalists.
The opposition leader Özgür Özel said at night before the Istanbul Town Hall that the intervention against the protesters would only strengthen the entire movement. “Mr. Erdogan should know one thing – there will be less for arrests, we will grow and grow and grow,” declared Özel and added that “There is no place in Istanbul prisons”.
