- The national night rally was held nationwide due to the incarceration of the mayor of Istanbul.
- Despite the late night conflict, the protests were mostly peace.
- Opposition parties held a rally at the Saracane Park ruins on Tuesday.
Istanbul: Many Turkish anti-government protesters say they have dispersed conflicts with police during the jail of Istanbul’s mayor after six nights of action, rejecting President Tayyip Erdogan’s claim “show” and they will be in a long deadlock.
The biggest protests in a decade began last week when Erdogan’s main rival, Ekrem Imamoglu, was detained among protesters, opposition parties, European leaders and rights groups, called politicization and anti-democratic moves.
Since then, every night, hundreds of thousands of people from all over the country gather in squares, streets and university campuses, calling for anti-Erdogan slogans, calling not only for Imamogru’s release, but also for justice and rights.
The party was banned, but continued – peace was carried out almost completely peacefully until police responded to the projectiles using clubs and pepper spray to cause more than 1,000 arrests.
During the main protests in Istanbul’s Salaq Park between Istanbul’s town hall and the towering Roman aqueduct, most cheered speeches from opposition leaders, while others (about 650 feet) were shouting and facing hundreds of white mental riot police officers.
“I think it will last a long time, depending on the reaction of the people, the police and the government,” said a college student. “I will do my best… because the government has not given us any justice.”
“When I first came, I was scared and thought we might be arrested. But I’m not scared now.”
Others told Reuters they expect to continue protesting every day, even if the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) said Tuesday would mark the last day of Sarachane’s planned event.
The challenge to Erdogan
The ongoing protests pose potential for Erdogan, who calls them “street terrorism.” He has barely criticized the streets since authorities violently shut down the massive anti-government Gezi Park protests in 2013.
After Monday’s cabinet meeting in Ankara, the president accused CHP of causing people’s provocation and predicted that once their “performance” disappears, they will be ashamed of the “evil” they have done to the country.
The government rejected the claim of political influence and said the judiciary was independent.
CHP has so far urged people to go to the streets several times in recent days, responding to the call on Sunday by Mayor Imamoglu, after he was sentenced to jail, awaiting trial on allegations of corruption he denied.
CHP Chairman Ozgur Ozel gave a hoarse speech every night on a bus in Saracane Park, saying that the last game there on Tuesday would be a “great ending, again Big Back Off” elsewhere, vowing to fight.
He did not provide details about the plan, but he said he would spend the night at City Hall until the Health Conference Committee elects the acting mayor on Wednesday.
A doctor said Monday in Saracane on Monday that he hopes to also attend demonstrations at Silivri Prison in the coming days, where the mayor is in a prison outside the city.
“I hope it never stops,” he said of the rally. “We are here because of justice and democracy, and because we don’t believe we live in a democratic country.”
Elsewhere in Istanbul on Monday night, a sit-in protest briefly blocked all traffic through the 19th-century Galata Bridge across the Golden Pole Waterway.
Students have driven most of the citizen obedience since Monday, and many have boycotted college courses. Many university scholars observed a one-day protest strike Tuesday.
The European Commission on Human Rights Committee on Monday called on Turkish authorities to immediately release detained protesters who were “detained for their legal exercise of their human rights.
