ANKARA According to experts, the arrest of Istanbul’s well-liked opposition mayor may have been the catalyst for the massive street rallies that have swept over Turkiye, but they also represent a far larger sense of discontent. “There is a lot of rage. People are taking to the streets on their own initiative. According to Yuksel Taskin, a legislator from the main opposition CHP, “some young people are being politicized for the first time in their lives.”
Days before the CHP was about to officially announce Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu as their candidate for the 2028 presidential election, the most formidable political opponent of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was arrested on Wednesday. Within 48 hours, the action triggered a wave of protest that extended to more than two-thirds of Turkiye’s 81 provinces, including AKP strongholds like the central Konya region, Trabzon, and Rize on the Black Sea.
Large groups of demonstrators, including many university students who are not often thought of as politically active, have taken to the streets despite a prohibition on protests and a strong police presence. Since the major protests in 2013, which started at Istanbul’s Gezi Park to protest its destruction and extended to nearly the entire country, these protests are the largest to have taken place in Turkey.
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