ISTANBUL: As authorities jailed about 1,900 participants in the protests, Turkey said Thursday it rejected “prejudiced” international statements regarding the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu and the ensuing nationwide rallies.
Imamoglu, the main political opponent of President Tayyip Erdogan and a poll leader, was imprisoned on Sunday pending trial for graft. Mass arrests occurred nationwide as a result of his detention, which sparked the biggest anti-government demonstrations in ten years.
The Republican People’s Party (CHP), Imamoglu’s primary opposition party, as well as other opposition parties, rights organizations, and Western powers, have all claimed that the lawsuit against the mayor, who was fired as a result of it, was a politicized attempt to remove a possible electoral danger to Erdogan.
