Tens of thousands of Turkish opposition protesters staged a rally outside Istanbul City Hall on Monday evening in support of the jailed Istanbul mayor, Ekrem Imamoglu, a key rival to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The demonstrators waved flags and placards and chanted slogans while clashes between protesters and the police occurred. Several protestors were detained, and police used tear gas to disperse the crowd.
Imamoglu was formally arrested by a court on Sunday and jailed pending trial on corruption charges, which further triggered the enormous protests on Monday night.
It followed an earlier detention last week, which sparked the largest wave of street demonstrations across Turkey, not seen in more than a decade.
According to the prosecutor's office, the Istanbul mayor was jailed for operating a criminal organisation, collecting bribes, indulging in extortion, unlawfully recording personal information, and bid-rigging.
He is still being prosecuted, but a request to put him in jail on terror-related charges was denied.
The opposition and some government officials reject the accusations against him and insist that Turkey’s courts operate independently.
Erdogan calls for 'stop to provocations.'
Meanwhile, in a televised address on Monday and following a Cabinet meeting, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused the opposition party CHP chairman, Ozgur Ozel, who has called for peaceful protests, of disturbing public order.
“I have made this call several times before, and today I am repeating it: Stop disturbing our citizens’ peace with provocations,” Erdogan said. He also suggested Ozel would be held to account for the protests.
"Of course, there will be political accountability for these actions in parliament and legal accountability in court."
Ozel is the head of the Republican People’s Party, or CHP, to which Imamoglu belongs.
Imamoglu's imprisonment is widely regarded as a political move to remove a major contender who could most likely defeat Erdogan in the next presidential race, currently scheduled for 2028.
“If you weren’t here today if you hadn’t rushed here since the first day, if you had yielded to tear gas and barricades, if you had gotten scared and remained at home, then today a caretaker appointed by Tayyip Erdogan would be residing here in this building,” said Ozgur Ozel Sunday night, pointing at city hall as he spoke to the massive crowd chanting anti-government slogans.
Imamoglu is arguably the second most prominent politician in Turkey behind Erdogan, serving as mayor of the 16 million economic and cultural capital of the country.
