Turkish police detained 42 people on Tuesday during a massive opposition rally at İstanbul City Hall, held to mark the 100th day since the city’s popular mayor, Ekrem İmamoğlu, was jailed in what critics say was a politically motivated corruption probe, Turkish Minute reported.
Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya announced on X that 42 demonstrators were detained on allegations of insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and resisting security forces.
Eight of the detainees were released later in the day, while the remaining 34 are still in police custody and are expected to be referred to court on Thursday, according to Turkish media reports.
The rally was held to show support for İmamoğlu, a prominent figure in the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) and the party’s presidential candidate for the next election, drawing at least 10,000 participants. After the event, police used tear gas to disperse the crowd, leading to occasional clashes. One person who fell ill during the police intervention was assisted by Deniz Yavuzyılmaz, a lawmaker from the CHP and taken away by ambulance, media reports said.
The detentions followed a large-scale police operation in İzmir, Turkey’s third-largest city and another opposition stronghold, where the number of people taken into custody rose to 130 on Wednesday. The suspects, all linked to City Hall, were detained amid an investigation into alleged corruption, facing charges of rigging public tenders, interfering with contract fulfillment and aggravated fraud.
The operation resembled a March 19 crackdown in İstanbul, which targeted officials in opposition-run municipalities and led to İmamoğlu’s detention.
İmamoğlu’s arrest sparked widespread protests, with thousands gathering outside İstanbul City Hall, in the Saraçhane neighborhood, at the urging of the CHP. The initial demonstrations in March quickly escalated into nightly clashes with riot police and spread across the country, marking Turkey’s worst street unrest in over a decade.
Nearly 2,000 people were detained, 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.
