Explained: Why are protests escalating in Turkey after the arrest of Istanbul’s mayor?
Anger over the detention of Ekrem İmamoğlu has spilled over into the fiercest protests to grip Turkey in over a decade.
READ MORE : http://www.euronews.com/2025/03/25/explained-why-are-protests-escalating-in-turkey-after-the-arrest-of-istanbuls-mayor
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Anger over the detention of Ekrem İmamoğlu has spilled over into the fiercest protests to grip Turkey in over a decade.
READ MORE : http://www.euronews.com/2025/03/25/explained-why-are-protests-escalating-in-turkey-after-the-arrest-of-istanbuls-mayor
Subscribe to our channel. Euronews is available on Dailymotion in 12 languages
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00:00Why are protests erupting in Turkey?
00:07Tens of thousands of protesters have been taking part in the biggest demonstrations
00:11to be seen in Turkey in over a decade.
00:14They were sparked by the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, President Erdogan's
00:20fiercest political rival, just days before he was nominated as the presidential nominee
00:26of the opposition Republican People's Party or CHP.
00:30If convicted for the corruption charges levelled against him, Imamoglu will not be able to
00:35run in the 2028 presidential ballot.
00:38His university diploma, a prerequisite for running for office in Turkey, has also been
00:44nullified.
00:45The events are widely perceived as an attempt to erase Erdogan's adversaries and a sharp
00:50turn towards full autocracy.
00:53Protests have defied a four-day government ban to take to the streets.
00:57This video, shared by online media T24, shows riot police restraining a protester and some
01:03officers are not wearing numbered helmets that allowed them to be identified, something
01:08human rights groups have long condemned for facilitating police impunity.
01:13The events have also triggered a wave of online misinformation.
01:17This widely circulating video claims to show a demonstration against Imamoglu's arrest,
01:23but in fact shows crowds gathering for the Pope's visit to East Timor last September.
01:28Another widely shared video claims to show the chairman of Imamoglu's CHP party, Özgür
01:33Özel, rallying a crowd of protesters to clash with the police.
01:39We verified Özel's speech and found it had been deceptively cut to take his words out
01:44of context.
01:45He in fact called on the crowds to use common sense and adopt just means in the fight for
01:52justice.