Facing a government crackdown on dissent, Turkey's protesters put aside their differences
ISTANBUL, April 6, (AP): The arrest of an opposition presidential candidate last month has triggered Turkey's largest anti-government protests in more than a decade, uniting demonstrators from different walks of life and sometimes diametrically opposed political views. It includes supporters of popular Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, and young people who see all politicians as ineffective.
Protesters range from the socialist left to the ultra-nationalist right, and from university students to retirees. They are united by a sense that the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has grown increasingly authoritarian, diminishing the secular and democratic values and laws that the country was built upon. They are fueled by outrage at Imamoglu's arrest and the government's attempts to quell the ensuing protests.
The protests began after the government arrested Imamoglu, the man seen as posing the most serious electoral challenge to Erdogan in years, on March 19. Prosecutors accuse him of corruption and aiding an outlawed Kurdish organization. Critics say the charges are an excuse to get a key rival out of the way, but the government denies interfering with the legal process.
The largest protests have happened alongside rallies of Imamoglu's center-left pro-secularist Republican People's Party, known as the CHP, but many young protesters said they don't support the party. Ogulcan Akti, a 26-year-old university student working two part-time jobs to support his family, said both the opposition and the ruling party are "liars." "The ones in power and the opposition that will come later, they're all the same," he said. "We don't trust anyone.' I
n the days after the mayor's arrest, thousands of students converged near Istanbul city hall. Some waved Turkish flags; others held images of left-wing figures from the 1970s and sang a Turkish version of the Italian protest song "Bella ciao." In images on social media, some protesters made the ultranationalist "grey wolf' hand sign, standing next to others showing the leftists' raised fist.
Some showed the peace sign favored by both leftists and pro-Kurdish groups, while others chanted slogans attacking the banned militant Kurdistan Workers' Party. Berk Esen, an associate professor of political science at Sabanci University, said most protesters he has seen are educated, urban young people aged 18 to 25, but they have little else in common: "This is a much more amorphous, eclectic group politically,' he said.
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