Protester gather in Istanbul despite a nationwide ban on gatherings<\/p>\n
When demonstrators gathered \u00adat Istanbul\u2019s city hall last week in outrage at the arrest<\/a> of mayor Ekrem \u0130mamo\u011flu, 26-year-old Azra said she was initially too scared to defy a ban on gatherings. As protests grew on university campuses and in cities and towns across Turkey, she could no longer resist joining.<\/p>\n \u201cI saw the spark in people\u2019s eyes and the excitement on their faces, and I decided I\u00a0had to come down here,\u201d she said with a grin, standing among tens of thousands that defied a ban on assembly<\/a> to fill the streets around city hall on Friday night. Despite the crowds, Azra feared reprisals and declined to give her full name. Many demonstrators were masked in a bid to defy facial recognition \u00adtechnology and fearing the teargas or pepper spray sometimes deployed by the police. Others smiled and took \u00adselfies to celebrate as fireworks illuminated the night sky.<\/p>\n The arrest of the mayor of Turkey\u2019s largest city in a dawn raid last week was a watershed moment in the country\u2019s prolonged shift away from democracy. Opponents of president Recep Tayyip Erdo\u011fan<\/a> fear it is a move to \u00adsideline the sole challenger capable of defeating him in upcoming elections, expected before 2028.<\/p>\n \u0130mamo\u011flu and more than 100 other people including municipal officials and the head of the mayor\u2019s construction firm were served \u00addetention orders and accused of embezzlement and corruption \u2013 charges the mayor denies. He also denies terrorism charges levelled at him over collaboration with a leftwing political coalition prior to local elections last year, which saw major losses for Erdo\u011fan\u2019s Justice and Development party (AKP).<\/p>\n Justice minister Y\u0131lmaz Tun\u00e7 attempted to rebuff any suspicion the charges against \u0130mamo\u011flu and \u00adothers from the opposition Republican People\u2019s Party (CHP) were \u00adpoliticised. \u201cAttempting to associate judicial investigations and cases with our president is, to say the least, an act of audacity and irresponsibility,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Within days, what began as protests in response to \u0130mamo\u011flu\u2019s detention has grown into something more. \u201cThis is bigger than \u0130mamo\u011flu. It\u2019s about a fight for democracy, law and equal rights,\u201d said Azra as demonstrators massed around her.<\/p>\n The Turkish president has long sought to retake Istanbul from opposition control, fuelling protesters\u2019 joy at defying a ban on gatherings in the city where Erdo\u011fan began his \u00adpolitical career as mayor. Standing outside a metro station as hundreds of cheering people poured into the street, breaking into anti-government chants and banging on the escalators, another protester, named Diler, called the demonstrations \u201ca response to the pressure that has built up over years\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are problems with the \u00adeconomy, with education, with the health \u00adsystem,\u201d she said in a nod to the \u00adeconomic \u00adcrisis that has seen the cost of \u00adliving soar. \u201cWe are fed up with this government.\u201d<\/p>\n Supporters of the mayor said 300,000 people joined the demonstration in Istanbul on Friday night, while video showed protesters taking to the streets and clashing with the police in major towns and cities across the country. Turkish interior minister Ali Yerlikaya said 343 \u00adpeople were detained across nine cities after taking part in demonstrations.<\/p>\n Turkish authorities ratcheted up their attempts to quell the growing protests, including blocking traffic across two bridges leading to city hall in Istanbul and locking down several thoroughfares nearby with lines of riot police.<\/p>\n Erdo\u011fan voiced his increasing \u00addispleasure at calls to demonstrate by the head of the opposition, saying: \u201cTurkey is not a country that will be on the street \u2013 it will not surrender to street terrorism.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite the domestic outrage at \u0130mamo\u011flu\u2019s detention, the international response remained muted. The clearest reaction was \u00adfinancial, with estimates that the Turkish central bank spent a record $11.5bn propping up the lira<\/a> the day after \u0130mamo\u011flu\u2019s arrest as investors fled and the \u00adcurrency plunged in value.<\/p>\n Reactions elsewhere were far less impactful. A spokesperson for the UN secretary general said they hoped \u201cthe normal rules for due process will be followed\u201d, while US state \u00addepartment spokesperson Tammy Bruce said Washington \u201cwill not comment on the internal decision-making \u00adprocesses of another country\u201d.<\/p>\n