Police officers stand guard during a protest by students against the detention of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, in Istanbul, Turkey, March 21, 2025. Dilara Senkaya/Reuters.
Turkish authorities have detained 343 people during overnight protests in several cities against the detention of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, the Interior Ministry said on Saturday.
Demonstrations took place in more than a dozen cities including Turkey’s biggest city Istanbul and the capital Ankara, the ministry said in a statement.
It said the detentions were made to prevent “disrupting of public order” and warned that authorities would not tolerate “chaos and provocation.
Protests have raged on for a fourth night in Istanbul following the arrest of its mayor, part of the largest demonstrations Turkey has seen in more than a decade.
Imamoglu, a rival of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was detained on Wednesday, days before he was due to be selected as a 2028 presidential candidate.
Imamoglu appeared at an Istanbul court on Saturday charged with corruption and aiding terrorist groups. He has denied the allegations.
In a speech on Saturday, Erdogan repeated his condemnation of the unrest and accused Imamoglu’s opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) of trying to “disturb the peace and polarise our people”.
Outside the mayor’s office in Istanbul, before the protests had even properly begun, tear gas hung in the air.
As the crowds had grown throughout the evening, it became hard to breathe as round after round was fired to disperse demonstrators.
Chanting “rights, law, justice”, people of all ages defied a government ban on gatherings to protest against what they see as unlawful detention.
Hundreds of thousands of Turks have taken to the streets in mostly peaceful demonstrations since Wednesday when Imamoglu was detained. He is President Tayyip Erdogan’s main political rival who leads him in some opinion polls.
The mayor’s Republican People’s Party (CHP), the main opposition, condemned the move as politically motivated and urged supporters to demonstrate lawfully.
CNN/ BBC/Reuters