Thousands flood Istanbul streets as opposition rally draws more than 10 000 protesters
The main opposition CHP party held a rally in response, with leader Ozgur Ozel directly challenging Erdogan and declaring 'Ekrem Imamoglu will become president,' continuing protests that sparked Turkey's worst street unrest in over a decade.
The arrests are part of a broader pattern of legal moves targeting the CHP opposition party, including court cases that could overturn their leadership election.
At least 10 000 people joined an opposition rally at Istanbul City Hall on Tuesday on the 100th day since the city's popular mayor Ekrem Imamoglu was jailed in what critics say was a politically motivated graft probe.
The rally came hours after police rounded up more than 120 people linked to City Hall in Izmir, an opposition stronghold and Turkey's third city, in the latest move targeting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's opponents.
The early-morning arrests were part of a probe into alleged graft and followed similar lines to the 19 March operation in opposition-run Istanbul when hundreds were arrested, including Imamoglu, Erdogan's main political rival.
Imamoglu's removal sparked a wave of mass protests with hundreds of thousands rallying outside City Hall, also known as Sarachane, at the urging of the main opposition CHP which also called Tuesday's protest.
"Today, we are all together at the very place where everything began... this struggle is against fascism, this is the fight for freedom," CHP leader Ozgur Ozel shouted, addressing the crowd in his trademark husky voice.
"On 19 March, you stood shoulder to shoulder in Sarachane. You shouted for justice. You stood for your will. You stood behind the one you elected... I am proud of every one of you," he said.
Addressing Erdogan directly over efforts to remove Imamoglu's image from billboards from across the city, he added: "You fear Mayor Ekrem's posters, his brochures, his photograph and his voice. But fear is futile in the face of destiny.
"You will go. Ekrem Imamoglu will become president."
The March protests, which initially turned into nightly running battles with riot police, quickly spread from Istanbul across the country in Turkey's worst street unrest in over a decade.
Nearly 2 000 people were arrested, among them many students as well as a handful of journalists.
Although the nightly protests ended after a week, the CHP has continued to hold rallies across Turkey, boosting its standing in the polls.
'Just like in Istanbul'
Among those arrested in Izmir was the city's former mayor and numerous "senior officials" in a city that the opposition has run for years, CHP's deputy chairman Murat Bakan said.
"This process is similar to what happened in Istanbul," he wrote on X.
"These dawn arrests are not a legal need but are a clear political choice. These people are in the public eye every day. If they had been called to testify, they would have done so," he said.
Izmir public prosecutor's office has issued arrest warrants for a total 157 people, local media reported.It was the latest in a slew of legal manoeuvres targeting the CHP, which aced last year's local elections and is rising in the polls.
On Monday, an Ankara court began hearing a case against the CHP involving allegations of vote-buying at its 2023 leadership primary.
The case could end up overturning the election of Ozel, whose rousing nightly addresses to the Istanbul crowds in March turned him into the poster child of the protest movement.
Critics say the case is another politically motivated attempt to undermine the CHP following the move against Imamoglu, which the party denounced as a "coup".
READ | Clashes erupt in Istanbul over alleged 'Prophet Muhammed' cartoon which 'insulted religious values'
"No conspiracy against our party is ever unrelated to the 19 March coup," Ozel wrote on X.
At Monday's hearing, the judge adjourning the proceedings until 8 September over a question of jurisdiction.
The Izmir arrests came as firefighters continued to battle several large wildfires raging near the western resort city, which have forced the evacuation of more than 45 000 people in the area.
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