Faced with a government’s repression against dissent, the demonstrators of Turkey have put aside their differences

Istanbul (AP) – The arrest of an opposition presidential candidate last month sparked Turkey The biggest antigan demonstrations In addition to a decade, uniting demonstrators from different backgrounds and sometimes diametrically opposed to political opinions.

He includes supporters of Mayor of Popular Istanbul Ekrem ImamogluAnd young people who consider all politicians to be ineffective. The demonstrators range from the socialist left to the ultra-nationalist right and from university students to retirees.

They are united by the feeling that the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has increasingly authoritarian, reducing secular and democratic values ​​and laws on which the country has been built. They are fed by indignation in the face of the arrest of Imamoglu and the government’s attempts to suppress the demonstrations that followed.

The demonstrations began after the arrest of the opposition chief

The demonstrations began after the government arrested Imamoglu, the man considered as the most serious electoral challenge in Erdogan for years on March 19. Prosecutors accuse him of corruption And help an outlaw Kurdish organization.

Critics say that accusations are an excuse for removing a key rival, but the government denies interfere with the legal process.

The biggest demonstrations occurred alongside the gatherings of the pro-Secularistic Republican Party of the Imamoglu center, known as the CHP, but many young demonstrators said they did not support the party.

Ogulcan Akti, a 26 -year -old university student occupying two part -time jobs to support his family, said the opposition and the ruling party were “liars”.

“Those in power and the opposition who will come later, they are all the same,” he said. “We don’t trust anyone.”

The students led the charge

In the days following the mayor’s arrest, thousands of students converged near the town hall of Istanbul. Some Turkish flags have signaled; 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 networks, some demonstrators have made the ultra -nationalist sign of “gray wolf”, standing next to others showing the raised fists of the leftists. Some have shown the sign of peace favored both by leftists and pro-Kurdish groups, while others chased slogans attacking the Prohibition of the Kurdistan militant workers party.

Berk Esen, associate professor of political science at the University of Sabanci, said that most of the demonstrators he had seen are young people and urban young people aged 18 to 25, but they have nothing else in common: “It is an eclectic group much more amorphous politically,” he said.

Anger of anger disorders

One afternoon last week, dozens of students from Bogazici University met in a metro station in Istanbul, many carrying masks to avoid reprisals or arrests.

More than 2,000 people, including journalists, have been detained since the start of the demonstrations. About 300 were officially arrested to “join an illegal demonstration” and “resist the police”, with some accused of “ties of terrorism”.

Student lawyers arrested say that the accusation of “reaching an illegal demonstration” does not justify prolonged detention and that the number of arrests is “unusually high” compared to offenses such as terrorism or drugs.

At the metro station, the 22 -year -old management student, Burak Turan and his girlfriend, slipped into a shopping center, looking at the officers to have dozens of demonstrators.

“We are here because so many students are arrested for no reason,” said Turan. “They act as if it was a war; They exercise laws in wartime. ” Turan refused to wear a mask, saying that he had nothing to be ashamed.

The other demonstrators include public employees, artists and retirees, many of whom support the CHP.

A man in sixties looking at a confrontation at the Town Hall said he was there to defend the rights of the young generation. “We don’t matter, they do. They are our future. ” He said.

Others were there to denounce what they perceived as a slide far from the secular and democratic values ​​of Turkey under Erdogan.

Mehtap Bozkurt, a 70 -year -old retiree and a CHP supporter, joined a demonstration outside the town hall of Istanbul.

“This country is secular and will remain secular,” she said. “We will resist until the end. I am ready to give my life and blood for this problem. ”

This does not mean that people who demonstrate are not Muslims, said Esen, the Sabanci Academic. “There are Muslims, religious and those who at least exercise religious duties among the demonstrators,” he said. “But they probably define themselves as secular.”

Parents protest on the treatment of students

Apart from the courts of Istanbul, parents and relatives, some holding flowers, maintained an anxious vigil. Some hoped for the immediate release of a loved one, while others were overwhelmed by frustration. A family member, who asked to remain anonymous fearing the reprisals of officials, told local media that detained students had “studied day and night to enter the best universities”.

“Look at the treatment they receive now. There are no rights. There is no law. There is no justice, ”she said.

Another woman showed journalists a photo of her son with a black eye. “He said to me,” Mom, they beat me, “she said in tears. Another woman said that she was a cancer patient who had left since dawn. “What did these children did?” Have they murdered someone? What did they do? “

About 300 demonstrators spent the Eid holidays in prison, separated from their families.

The lawyers of several demonstrators told the Associated Press that the students were detained in overcrowded cells and are faced with physical and verbal ill -treatment, as well as limited access to meals, because prison commissioners are closed for Eid. Lawyers also fear that students are missing exams or will be expelled as a “punishment” for participating in the demonstrations.

Police on Thursday published a statement describing as a “vile slander” said that women had been sexually assaulted in detention.

The Ministry of the Interior said that at least 150 police officers were injured in clashes with demonstrators. The images of the demonstrations have shown that the riot police using tear gas and plastic lozenges, while the students have thrown plastic water bottles and lighting rockets.

A pivotal moment

Esen says that demonstrations can mark a pivotal moment for Turkey.

“The police violence used by the government against them will sponge them throwing them back after a certain point or will it cause a more important confrontation and will make it a long-term business? If the second occurs, I will be very optimistic about what Turkey becomes democratic again. If the first occurs, all this goes towards a very bad place,” he said.

A young demonstrator carrying a mask looked at the dead end with the police taking place near the town hall last week.

“I am here today because I do not accept autocracy,” she said. “The arrest of Ekrem Imamoglu means that we accept that there will be no more elections in this country. I don’t accept that. “