Pro-Imamoğlu protesters won’t quit, demand justice
Stories filter out of Istanbul reeling from the mayor’s arrest. While the city’s main sites are cordoned off by police, supporters of Erdoğan’s main rival continue to protest in more peripheral streets and alleys. Still Turkish public opinion is split, but most Istanbulites stand with Imamoğlu who was voted by almost 15 million people in the opposition CHP presidential primary.
Istanbul (AsiaNews) – “Adalet!”, “Justice!” is the cry of anger resonating in the streets of Istanbul in today’s turbulent days, echoing huge street protests but also unexpectedly smaller gatherings in small alleys and a subway car, followed by those who instinctively join the call by clapping their hands to the sound in a complicit gesture.
The other words that are filling people's conversations as well as television specials are, of course, Ekrem Imamoğlu, the name of Istanbul’s popular mayor whose arrest was upheld by the prosecutor's office yesterday morning, four days after his sensational arrest.
Erdoğan's main opponent, who had recently officially announced his decision to run for president in 2028, is accused, among other things, of “supporting an armed terrorist organisation” and “creating a criminal organisation”, as well as tender rigging and accepting bribes. He firmly rejected the charges read in the Caglayan courthouse.
Outside, police are barely holding back protesters, shoving people and using batons, a scene seen elsewhere in the city marked by total military lockdown, starting with Taksim Square, Istanbul’s heart, wholly empty, enveloped in a surreal calm, cordoned off by police.
On nearby İstiklâl Street, the long, bustling pedestrian boulevard of shopping and nightlife, things continue as usual with tourists taking pictures of the historic red tram. But here too, uniformed men are visible, especially near potential hot spots, like the headquarters of Imamoğlu's he Republican People's Party (CHP) from where a loudspeaker pumps out patriotic songs, the only sign of protest tolerated.
Banned here, dissent has moved crossing the Golden Horn, despite the closure of metro stations and diverted buses, to Sarachane, the park in front of city hall, where a permanent garrison has been set up for days and, every evening, hundreds of thousands converge to demand the release of the anti-Erdoğan mayor.
Approaching the park, the law enforcement deployment is impressive. Scores of police in riot gear get off dozens of tourist buses, setting up a long barrier in the shadow of the Roman aqueduct and around the Burmali mosque, up the road that goes towards the University, one of the protest’s main hot spots.
Students march and shout their anger, singing, calling for “democracy!” “Who doesn't jump is with Tayyp,” an allusion to the all-power president. “The judiciary is corrupt,” says Ayse, a young communication student. “We want the will of the people to be respected.”
These brave young people represent that part of the city that wants a liberal, democratic Turkey open to the world. They go into the streets knowing full well that they will be dispersed with water cannons and beaten perhaps, as were hundreds in the past few days, stopped by police asking for their identity papers.
Who knows, maybe some of the agents, young men and women, of their own age, who let them pass under the small stage between the red CHP flags and those with the face of the father of the nation Atatürk, think the same way.
Protests are clearly not banned, only contained. The authorities want to avoid provoking popular anger because they know that public opinion in Turkey is divided, with most people in Istanbul in favour of Ekrem Imamoğlu.
A practising, albeit secular Muslim, the mayor, who has helped to bring new voters closer to the traditionally Kemalist and secular party, was the name voted en masse yesterday in the CHP primaries with a single candidate, marking his official run in the next presidential elections.
Some 14,850,000 people took part in the vote. Party leaders, starting with by President Özgür Özel, harangued the crowd shouting, "Here we are making history”. They praised young people for "taking back the streets", urging Turks to go to the polls as a sign of protest against what they see as an “internal coup”.
Time will tell. Meanwhile, the future is very uncertain, and the city is preparing for more tensions, scarred and disappointed, but unwilling to throw in the towel.
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26/06/2019 16:28
