Widespread protests across Turkey have intensified after Istanbul’s mayor – a key challenger to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan – 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 any wrongdoing.
Many view his detention on Wednesday as a politically driven attempt to remove him from the next presidential race, scheduled for 2028.
But government officials reject accusations that legal actions against opposition figures are politically motivated and insist that Turkey’s courts operate independently.
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.
A day earlier he was questioned for four hours over the corruption accusations.
He appeared in court on Saturday for the first time since his detention, denying all the allegations against him.
Some 90 other people were also questioned by prosecutors. Dozens are prominent figures and include two district mayors.
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.
“The days of going out into the streets, taking left-wing organisations, extremists, and vandals with you… are now behind us,” he said.
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.”
Authorities barred access to a courthouse in Istanbul where Mr Imamoglu was being questioned after protestors gathered there, shouting: “Rights, law, justice!”
Hundreds of police officers and more than a dozen water cannon trucks were deployed.
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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.
Police used water cannons and tear gas on demonstrators in the capital, Ankara.
Images on local TV also showed officers clashing with protestors in the Aegean coastal city of Izmir.
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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.
Mr Imamoglu is expected to be nominated as the Republican People’s Party’s presidential candidate in a primary on Sunday.
The party’s leader, Ozgur Ozel, said that the primary, in which around 1.5 million delegates can vote, will go ahead as planned.
