Arrest of Istanbul mayor brings thousands out onto the streets
PUBLISHED : 22 Mar 2025 at 18: 45
A protester wearing a Turkish flag gestures in front of riot police at a demonstration following the arrest of Istanbul’s mayor, near the city hall on March 21. (Photo: AFP)
ISTANBUL – More than 340 people were arrested following Turkey’s biggest street protests in over a decade sparked by the detention of Istanbul’s powerful opposition mayor, a minister said on Saturday.
Hundreds of thousands of people hit the streets across the country late Friday, sparking clashes with riot police in Turkey’s three largest cities: Istanbul, the capital Ankara and the western coastal city of Izmir.
Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said “343 suspects were caught in the protests that took place in Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, Adana, Antalya, Canakkale, Eskisehir, Konya and Edirne,” warning that those who sought to sow “chaos and provocation … will definitely not be tolerated!”
It was the third straight night that protesters rallied in support of Imamoglu — President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s biggest political rival, whose arrest Wednesday triggered a massive show of defiance that spread from Istanbul to more than 50 of Turkey’s 81 provinces.
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