{"id":264702,"date":"2025-03-23T01:58:07","date_gmt":"2025-03-23T01:58:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/23\/protests-sweep-turkey-as-istanbul-mayor-key-challenger-to-erdogan-appears-in-court\/"},"modified":"2025-03-23T01:58:07","modified_gmt":"2025-03-23T01:58:07","slug":"protests-sweep-turkey-as-istanbul-mayor-key-challenger-to-erdogan-appears-in-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/23\/protests-sweep-turkey-as-istanbul-mayor-key-challenger-to-erdogan-appears-in-court\/","title":{"rendered":"Protests sweep Turkey as Istanbul mayor – key challenger to Erdogan – appears in court"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Widespread\u00a0protests across Turkey have intensified after Istanbul’s mayor – a key challenger to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan\u00a0– was detained over allegations of corruption and links to terror organisations.<\/p>\n

For a fourth night, demonstrators have clashed with police as Ekrem Imamoglu, a popular opposition figure with the Republican People’s Party, faced further questioning. The mayor denies any wrongdoing.<\/p>\n

Many view his detention on Wednesday<\/a><\/strong> as a politically driven attempt to remove him from the next presidential race, scheduled for 2028.<\/p>\n

But government officials reject accusations that legal actions against opposition figures are politically motivated and insist that Turkey’s<\/a><\/strong> courts operate independently.<\/p>\n

Police questioned Mr Imamoglu for around five hours on Saturday as part of a terror investigation into allegations of aiding the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, the Cumhuriyet newspaper reported.<\/p>\n

A day earlier he was questioned for four hours over the corruption accusations.<\/p>\n

He appeared in court on Saturday for the first time since his detention, denying all the allegations against him.<\/p>\n

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\n Fireworks were thrown as protestors clashed with riot police in on Saturday. Pic: AP
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\n Officers used pepper spray against demonstrators in Istanbul. Pic: AP
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Some 90 other people were also questioned by prosecutors. Dozens are prominent figures and include two district mayors.<\/p>\n

Earlier on Saturday, Mr Erdogan said the government would not tolerate street protests and accused the opposition party of links to corruption and extremist organisations.<\/p>\n

“The days of going out into the streets, taking left-wing organisations, extremists, and vandals with you… are now behind us,” he said.<\/p>\n

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\n Demonstrators protesting on Saturday in Istanbul. Pic: Reuters
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\n Ekrem Imamoglu addressing supporters in January 2025. Pic: Reuters
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Interior minister Ali Yerlikaya said 343 people had been detained in protests on Friday night, adding: “There will be no tolerance for those who seek to violate societal order, threaten the people’s peace and security, and pursue chaos and provocation.”<\/p>\n

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\n A line of riot police hold back crowds. Pic: Reuters
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\n Crowd control spray is used to disperse demonstrators in Istanbul. Pic: Reuters
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Authorities barred access to a courthouse in Istanbul where Mr Imamoglu was being questioned after protestors gathered there, shouting: “Rights, law, justice!”<\/p>\n

Hundreds of police officers and more than a dozen water cannon trucks were deployed.<\/p>\n

Read more from Sky News:
Death after plane crash in South Africa<\/a>
Israel strikes southern Lebanon<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Saturday marked the fourth night of demonstrations, which were largely peaceful. But a group of protesters, trying to break through barricades to reach Istanbul’s main square, threw flares, stones and other objects at police who responded with pepper spray.<\/p>\n

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\n A police officer kicks a flare thrown by protesters during a rally in Istanbul on Friday. Pic: AP
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Police used water cannons and tear gas on demonstrators in the capital, Ankara.<\/p>\n

Images on local TV also showed officers clashing with protestors in the Aegean coastal city of Izmir.<\/p>\n

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Thousands marched in several other cities calling on the government to resign. It marks the largest wave of street demonstrations in Turkey in more than a decade.<\/p>\n

Mr Imamoglu is expected to be nominated as the Republican People’s Party’s presidential candidate in a primary on Sunday.<\/p>\n

The party’s leader, Ozgur Ozel, said that the primary, in which around 1.5 million delegates can vote, will go ahead as planned.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n


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Widespread\u00a0protests across Turkey have intensified after Istanbul’s mayor – a key challenger to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan\u00a0– was detained over allegations of corruption and links to terror organisations. For a fourth night, demonstrators have clashed with police as Ekrem Imamoglu, a popular opposition figure with the Republican People’s Party, faced further questioning. The mayor denies […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":264703,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/e3.365dm.com\/25\/03\/768x432\/skynews-istanbul-imamoglu-protests_6864549.jpg?20250322222601","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[13382,44858,1625,20840,15557,2733,8270,10452,30964,15556],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264702"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=264702"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264702\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":264704,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264702\/revisions\/264704"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/264703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=264702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=264702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=264702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}