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Protests continue unabated in Istanbul, initiated by the opposition party
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Apr 10, 2025
The Turkish opposition claims it must "force" President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to call for early elections after the arrest of Istanbul's mayor last month. The Republican People's Party is working to revive an anti-government protest movement, with hundreds heeding the call to demonstrate in Istanbul and across the country, as explained by FRANCE 24’s Andrew Hilliar.
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0:00
While still feeling a bit of momentum from Turkey's biggest anti-government protests in over a decade and undeterred by mass arrests
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opposition leader Asgur Ozel has vowed to fight Recep Tayyip Erdogan until the end
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In an interview with the AFP news agency, Ozel said that the arrest of Istanbul's opposition mayor amounted to a coup by the Turkish president
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Now, as a reminder then, it was Ekrem Imamoglu's arrest which sparked that big opposition protest movement, the biggest since 2013
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though gatherings have seen a drop in intensity over the past 10 days or so
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For more, we're going to cross now to France 24's reporter Andrew Hillier in Istanbul
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Hi, Andy. So have these protests then lost all of their steam
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Well, I mean, that's not what the CHP, Turkey's main opposition party, would say
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They held a large protest last night here in Istanbul. And it was, there was a lot riding on this protest for the CHP
1:01
It was indeed a big test for them because as you just mentioned there we did see a dip in momentum a kind of hiatus in the protests following the end of Ramadan and the holidays here
1:14
So last night's protest was indeed the first major rally in Istanbul since the end of March
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And it was the first of what has been billed as a series of weekly Wednesday night rallies that will take place in a different district of Istanbul every week
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Next week's rally will take place in Beylikdüzü, which is significant because that's where Ekrem Imamoglu was mayor before he was elected mayor of Istanbul in 2019
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In terms of momentum, you'll remember, of course, in the days following his arrest three weeks ago, there were huge, massive demonstrations outside Istanbul City Hall
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Now, at last night's protest, there were several thousand people. There were very large crowds indeed, young and old people alike, students as well
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But one thing I think that is worth mentioning is that some of the students we speak to here say that they attend these rallies to support the opposition movement but not necessarily the CHP itself
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So there is still some work to be done by the CHP, I would say
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But everyone we spoke to last night said they were determined to keep on resisting, to keep on demonstrating
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And indeed, the leader of the CHP, Özgürzel, a familiar feature of these protests
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addressed crowds, telling them that this wasn't a gathering, that it was an act of defiance
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So some fighting talk from Özgür Özell. So, Andy, tomorrow is a big day with Imamulu facing two different hearings
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Can you tell us more about that and how that might impact then the future of this movement
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Yeah, well, just to give you some context, Ekrem Imamulu is being held in the prison complex of Silivri
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which is just outside Istanbul, pending trial on charges of corruption. Now, even before his
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arrest three weeks ago he was already facing several criminal cases And on Friday tomorrow it is a significant date for at least two of those cases because there will be hearings for two cases Now the first thing I should mention is that the hearings for those cases
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have actually been moved from the Istanbul courthouses, where they were originally set to take place
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to a courthouse inside the Silivri prison complex itself. Now, that decision may have been taken, perhaps to avoid protesters from gathering outside courthouses in Istanbul
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Now, regards to those hearings, the first one relates to remarks that Imamoglu made against Istanbul's chief public prosecutor
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And if he is convicted in that case, he could get up to seven years in prison
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Now, the other hearing relates to an ongoing trial into accusations of tender rigging when he was mayor of Beylikdüzü, that is, district of Istanbul I mentioned earlier
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That's before he was elected mayor of Istanbul. And, of course, in the context of ongoing protests, authorities across the city are on high alert
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Andy Hillier in Istanbul, thank you very much
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