Protesters tell The i Paper they are facing police brutality and expect it to escalate
Turkey’s largest protest movement in more than a decade continued for a sixth day on Monday, drawing widespread support despite a crackdown from the state.
Hundreds of thousands are reported to have attended protests that have reached 55 of Turkey’s 81 provinces since the arrest of Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoglu on 19 March, campaigning against perceived authoritarian overreach by the government of President Reccep Tayyip Erdogan.
Protests have been harshly policed. Turkish authorities reported 1,133 arrests over the first five days, and crowds have been broken up with the use of tear gas and water cannons. Ankara’s interior ministry said protesters “threaten the people’s peace and security, and pursue chaos and provocation.”
Erdogan’s government has issued orders temporarily banning protests in several cities, while suppressing media and social media coverage of the movement.
But more protests went ahead on Monday evening in defiance of the rulings, after a day in which students and faculty staged walkouts that paralysed several of the country’s leading universities.
Students have come to play a leading role since the arrest of Imamoglu on corruption charges, who was due to be nominated as the presidential candidate of the Republican People’s Party (CHP) and main rival to Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP).
Dozens of other political and civil society figures were also arrested on the same day.
Student groups sparked the movement into life after the CHP initially declined to call for protests, said Selim Koru, a Turkish political analyst at the Foreign Policy Research Institute think-tank.
“It was footage of a group at Istanbul University breaking through police barricades that breathed a bit of courage into the public,” he wrote in an analysis on his website.
Rana, a 19-year-old student at an Istanbul university – whose name has been changed for safety reasons, as with others quoted in this report – has attended several rallies. She said the arrest of Imamoglu was the immediate cause for protests but students have a broader agenda.
“The government is now usurping our freedoms, our right to vote and be elected, and even our lives as individuals,” she told The i Paper.
Erdogan’s government denies persecuting opponents and claims to be enforcing the law in the case of Imamoglu and others.
But Human Rights Watch alleges that his administration has a long record of “targeting critics” and undermining democratic institutions, including through interference.
Rana, who does not support any political party, said she and other protesters have faced police violence at rallies.
“My friend got a plastic bullet, I got a torch thrown at my head,” she said. “After the politicians’ speeches are over, the police…chase the people, (and) beat them indiscriminately.”
The protests have also received backing from trade unions, minority groups, and opposition parties across the spectrum from the Communist Party to the hard right Victory Party, as well as students.
Hakki Ozdal, editor of Turkish newspaper Evrensel, wrote: “Young people, workers, farmers, retirees, women are in the streets, pointing to the government as the source of their accumulated problems and demanding change.”
The government has taken further repressive measures as the movement has grown, arresting 10 journalists, and seeking suspensions of hundreds of social media accounts. State broadcaster RTUK has issued fines against independent media covering the protests, alleging violation of impartiality laws.
Digital rights group have also accused the Turkish government of limiting access to sites including X, Youtube and Instagram.
Elon Musk’s social network network X published a statement on Monday pushing back against requests from Ankara to block accounts.
“We object to multiple court orders from the Turkish Information and Communication Technologies Authority to block over 700 accounts of news organisations, journalists, political figures, students, and others,” the company said.
But activists alleged the company had still shut down several accounts involved with protests.
Zeynep, 34, who works at a civil rights group, has attended rallies but said she would not on Monday night for fear of a more violent crackdown.
Islamist group, the Great Islamic Raiders’ Front has threatened to attack protesters at a rally in Istanbul’s Saraçhane square, she said.
“I worry about it,” said Zeynep. “I know there will be police hand in hand with these Islamist groups.”
Zeynep said she hoped the protests would pressure the government to release Imamoglu but added “the AKP and Erdogan push all the buttons now” and they “use the judiciary as a political weapon” in the same way as Vladimir Putin’s regime in Russia.
Memed, a 40-year-old writer, said he was attending protests to show discontent with a wide range of issues.
“I think the current situation in Turkey – in every aspect of politics, in economics, in culture, in sports, in media, everything – is going in a very bad direction,” he said. “People are having a really difficult time just barely surviving.”
“I feel like every month that goes on, something is being stolen from my life, and this anger builds up. Now I have a direct way of showing my anger and my discontent, so that’s why I’m on the streets.”