(Adnkronos) – New tensions in Turkey. Protests and police intervention with water cannons in Izmir, the country’s third-largest city. At the origin of the protests is the decision by a court to remove the leaders of the CHP, the Republican People’s Party, the oldest political force in the country. The call for protest came from the party’s ousted leader, Ozgur Ozel. And even before the start of the demonstration, the Police ‘sealed off’ Republic Square. Amidst the tensions, demonstrators dispersed into nearby streets, as witnessed by a Dpa agency journalist on site. More than a thousand people gathered around the square. “Side by side against fascism” was one of the slogans chanted. “We will win by fighting” was another.
For the demonstrators, the former CHP leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu, reinstated by an Ankara court to lead the party on an interim basis, is a “traitor”. “Tayyip Kemal,” the square calls him, with a clear reference to Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan. In 2023, Kilicdaroglu ran in the presidential elections won by Erdogan.
Last week, an Ankara court annulled the results of the party’s 2023 congress, which had seen Ozel take the helm of the political force, coming under fire for alleged irregularities. The CHP leadership has always rejected all accusations. And they took the case to the Supreme Court. And Kilicdaroglu, 77, was reinstated as head of the party he led from 2010 to 2023. A decision that triggered protests in Ankara and Istanbul.
The tensions in Izmir also come after other opposition leaders were detained this morning, including Mustafa Guney, the CHP mayor of the Guzelbahce district in Izmir, considered an ally of Ozel. Police searches were carried out at the local municipal administration headquarters, the Dha agency reported. The raids, the agency reported, are part of an investigation into alleged irregularities in the construction sector. And Guney’s wife and the head of the local Building Department were also arrested.
For some time, the CHP – a secular party, founded in 1923 by the father of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk – has been denouncing itself as the target of a politically motivated orchestrated campaign. With Ozel, the party was the protagonist of the landslide victory in the local elections two years ago, and since then, several members of the political force have been arrested as part of investigations into “terrorism” and “corruption”.
Behind bars since March of last year is also the ousted mayor of Istanbul, Ekrem Imamoglu. Considered, at the time of his arrest, Erdogan’s number one political rival, he is on trial on corruption charges. His case triggered mass protests not seen in Turkey for years.
