Report
Police repression and censorship, but Turkish protesters do not leave the streets
Protests are recurring daily throughout the country, with strong youth participation. On March 21, university students in Istanbul organized a nationwide demonstration and declared an academic boycott.
For days, hundreds of thousands have taken to the streets in Turkey against the central government, with anger directed primarily at the judiciary and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The protests have been met with violence by the police, who have stopped and detained more than three hundred protesters and started investigations on 40 people for social media posts. Nonetheless, hundreds of thousands have gathered every evening in front of the Istanbul City Hall in Saraçhane since the arrest of Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu and a hundred others on March 19.
Protests are recurring daily throughout the country, with strong youth participation. On March 21, university students in Istanbul organized a nationwide demonstration and declared an academic boycott, while thousands of students at universities in Ankara, Izmir, Adana, and Eskisehir fought against police violence.
On the same day, in Istanbul, at least 300,000 people participated in a protest led by the main opposition party, the People's Party of the Republic (CHP), of which Imamoglu is a member. This was an enormous number, given the fact that the bridges over the Golden Horn had been closed, buses had changed routes, and many roads had been blocked by police to prevent access to the rally point. That same evening, CHP leader Özgür Özel issued an appeal: “I call on 86 million citizens to take to the streets on March 23 against the dictatorship.”
Ankara's response came immediately, promising criminal punishments against the protesters and the CHP. The president called Özel's proposal a “dead-end street” and the protesters “defenders of thieves.” Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya declared the demonstrations “illegal” from day one, despite the fact that the right to protest is guaranteed by the Constitution. Istanbul Prefect Davut Gul claimed that clashes with police are only taking place because some protesters intentionally try to create incidents.
The Doctors’ Union of Turkey (TBB) denounced the massive use of pepper gas by police, resulting in serious damage to the health of protesters. “According to the Chemical Weapons Convention, to which Turkey has been a signatory since 1997, tear gas cannot be used in enclosed places or fired at eye level. However, these days we are seeing the continuous misuse of these products.”
Journalists have also been targeted. According to the Journalists' Union of Turkey and the Basin-Is division of DISK, the country's main confederal union, at least 10 journalists have been directly and intentionally injured by police during the protests.
“Our work is being impeded, our equipment destroyed, and we are suffering police violence. Hitting journalists is a crime against humanity,” reads their press release issued last Saturday. In addition, access to several news sites has been blocked nationwide.
According to Odtu University's media monitoring group, at least ten websites of feminist collectives, extra-parliamentary political parties, online newspapers and university movements have been made inaccessible without any legal provision. According to the international observatory NetBlocks, from March 19-22, access to several social media platforms was nearly impossible for at least 40 hours due to the bandwidth restriction imposed by the central government.
Over time, new details have emerged about the case being brought against Istanbul's mayor and more than 100 others. Mehmet Pehlivan, a lawyer for Ekrem Imamoglu, said on social media: “Despite the secrecy of the file, some details were leaked by media close to the government. The unsigned minutes of Imamoglu's interrogation were published in newspapers and broadcast on TV. We later found that partial statements from anonymous witnesses and unauthorized wiretaps taken out of context have been used to support the charges.”
The accusations against the detainees, together with Imamoglu, also include taking part in international meetings they allegedly attended in an official capacity together with members of the government and advisers to the president. Meanwhile, as Imamoglu’s case drew public attention and the protests began, the Istanbul Court dismissed the executive board of the Istanbul Bar Association, accusing it of “making propaganda for a terrorist organization.” Hundreds of lawyers protested in Taksim Square.
Turkey is heading towards a growing popular uprising and escalating repression as the CHP announced it would hold its primaries on Sunday as scheduled to choose a candidate for the 2028 presidential election, despite the fact that the only candidate, Ekrem Imamoglu himself, is in preventive detention.
Originally published at https://ilmanifesto.it/polizia-e-censura-ma-le-piazze-della-turchia-non-si-svuotano on 2025-03-23