Turkish authorities have arrested more than 1,100 people including journalists, while bombarding the social media platform X with requests to block hundreds of accounts after tens of thousands took to the streets in the largest anti-government protests in years,
The Guardian reports.
One journalist was detained while covering demonstrations that took place outside Istanbul city hall, while nine others were detained in dawn raids.
The sweeping arrests came the morning after the Istanbul mayor, Ekrem İmamoğlu, was arrested on corruption charges and sent to a high-security prison on the outskirts of the city, on the same day he was named the opposition’s candidate for president.
Mass demonstrations triggered by İmamoğlu’s detention amount to the largest in Turkey in more than a decade. The protests have resulted in increasing pushback from the Turkish authorities, with police now readily deploying pepper spray, teargas and armoured water cannon trucks against crowds gathering in Istanbul as well as other major towns and cities across the country.
The Turkish interior minister, Ali Yerlikaya, said 1,133 people had been detained in five days, starting with the dawn raid in which İmamoğlu and tens of municipal officials were taken into custody. Many of those detained in the days since were arrested for breaching a city-wide ban on protests in Istanbul. The city’s governor also restricted entry to Istanbul over the weekend in an attempt to curb the demonstrations.
Yerlikaya added that “some circles have been abusing the right to assembly and demonstration, attempting to disrupt public order, inciting street events and attacking our police. Such actions are aimed at disrupting the peace and security of our people.”
