Türkiye's opposition vows to continue protests after mayor's arrest

Türkiye's opposition insisted they would continue the protest movement triggered by the arrest of Istanbul's mayor after a mass weekend rally, with a Swedish reporter the latest to be detained.

Trrkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said this week that nearly 1,900 people had been detained since the protests began, adding that courts had jailed 260 of them pending trial as of Thursday.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has dominated Turkish politics for over two decades, has dismissed the protests as a "show", warned of legal consequences, and called on the Republican People's Party (CHP) to stop "provoking" Turks.

The arrest on March 19 of Istanbul's opposition mayor, Ekrem İmamoğlu, on corruption charges his supporters say are fabricated, has sparked the most significant anti-government protests in Türkiye in over a decade.

After more than a week of nighttime street demonstrations, the CHP mobilized hundreds of thousands for a mass rally in Istanbul on Saturday, calling for İmamoğlu's release. 

With Türkiye entering several days of public holiday marking the end of Ramadan, the opposition has vowed to sustain the protest movement while shifting tactics to more localized events.

CHP leader Özgür Özel, who has stepped in as the party's chief spokesperson while İmamoğlu remains in Silivri prison, announced that protests would now be held in a different one of Türkiye's 81 provinces every weekend and in a different district of Istanbul every Wednesday.

"Those who think that we will not be able to celebrate the holiday are very wrong! Because we will definitely find a way to be together!" İmamoğlu said in a message from prison through his lawyers on X.

Release campaign

On Sunday, Özel launched a campaign to gather signatures for a petition demanding İmamoğlu's release and early elections, beginning the drive in the now-suspended mayor's home region on the Black Sea.

"The reason İmamoğlu was thrown into jail is that he defeated Mr. Tayyip in the past," Özel said, referring to the mayor's victories over ruling-party candidates in the 2019 and 2024 municipal elections - securing the post Erdoğan himself once held.

İmamoğlu's adviser, Mahir Polat, who was arrested in the same case, has meanwhile been hospitalized with a heart condition, his lawyer Erkam Erdem told the newspaper Cumhuriyet.

Detentions and custody

Authorities have responded to the protests with hundreds being detained and 260 remanded in custody pending trial.

Among those arrested is Swedish journalist Joakim Medin, who works for Dagens ETC. He was detained upon arrival in Türkiye on Thursday while covering the protests. The Turkish presidency said he is being held on terror-related charges and for "insulting the president."

His newspaper's editor-in-chief, Andreas Gustavsson, called the accusations "absurd."

Swedish Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard said Medin's case was an "absolute priority" and vowed to raise it with her Turkish counterpart. 

Turkish authorities accuse Medin of membership of a terrorist organisation and "insulting the president." It added that the arrest "decision has no connection whatsoever to journalistic activities." 

Prison visit

"You can't prosper with oppression - stop oppressing the young children of this country," Özel said, ahead of a planned visit to İmamoğlu and other detainees in Silivri later on Sunday.

Marta Kos, the EU's enlargement commissioner, warned that the mass arrests and journalist deportations contradict Türkiye's "commitments and democratic tradition."

"Freedom of assembly is a fundamental right," she said, stressing that the Turkish authorities had pledged to uphold it in their quest to join the EU.