Dealing with government cracks in disagreement, Turkey’s protesters have postponed their differences

Istanbul – The arrest of the opposition presidential candidate last month has launched Turkey The biggest anti-government protest In more than a decade, uniting protesters from different walks of life, and sometimes diametally opposition to political views.

Includes supporters Popular Istanbul Mayor Ekrem ImamoguAnd young people who see all politicians as inefficient. Protesters range from the socialists who crossed the ultranationalist in law, and from students from university to pensioners.

They are united in the sense that the President of the president of Tayyip Erdogan was increasingly authorized by the authoritarian, diminishing the worldly and democratic values ​​and the laws in which the country is built. They encourage anger in the arrest of Imamog and government attempts to stifle the continues of the protest.

The protests began after the government arrested Imamog, the man saw as a posictive the hardest Menu Erdogan in the years, 19. March. Prosecutors accuse him of corruption and aiding a prohibited Kurdish organization.

Critics say the accusations are an excuse to obtain a key rival from the road, but the government denies the relief of the legal process.

The biggest protests took place next to Meetings in the city center Imaglu’s prosperous Republican peoples, known as the CHP, but many young protesters said they did not support the Party.

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

“They’re powers and opposition to come later, they’re all the same,” he said. “We don’t trust anyone.”

In the days after the arrest of mayors, thousands of students conflexed in the vicinity of Istanbul City Hall. Some waves Turkish flags; Others held the 1970s swing pictures and sang the Turkish version of the Italian protest song “Bella Ciao”.

In images on social networks, some protesters have made an ultranationalist “gray wolf” of the inscription sign, which stands next to others who show an elevated fist. Some showed a peacekeeper who favored and left-wingers and the Problem groups, while others sang slogans that attack Prohibited Militant Kurdistan Workers Party.

Berk Essen, Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Sabanci, said most of the demonstrators who saw educated, urban young people aged 18 to 25, but have a little more amorphic, “he said.

On one afternoon last week, dozens of students from the University of Bogazic gathered at the Metrono station in Istanbul, many supporting masks to avoid reprisals or arrests.

More than 2,000 people, including journalists, is detained since the beginning of the protest. About 300 was formally arrested for charges, including “joining the illegal protest” and “resisting the police”, with some accused of “terrorist relationships”.

Lawyers for arrested students say that the accusation of “joining the illegal protest” does not approve extended detention and that the number of arrests is “unusually high” in relation to crimes such as terrorism or drugs.

At the metro station, a student of the 22-year management of Turan Turan and his girlfriend slid into the mall, watching officers withholding dozens of protesters.

“We’re here because so many students are arrested for no reason,” Turan said. “They act as a war; the laws on war.” Turan refused to wear a mask, saying that he didn’t have to be ashamed.

Other protesters include public officials, artists and pensioners, many of whom support CHP.

The man in the 60s who look at Supervisance in the City Hall said that he was there to defend the rights of the younger generation. “We don’t matter, they do it. They are our future.” He said.

Others were there to talk against what they understood as a slide from Turkish secular and democratic values ​​under Erdogan.

Mehtap Bozkurt, 70-year pensioner and CHP fan, joined the protest external city hall Istanbul.

“This country is aware of and will remain indirectly,” she said. “We will resist until the end. I am willing to give my life and blood for this question.”

This does not mean that people who protest don’t practice Muslims, said Essen, Sabanci Academic. “There are Muslims, religious people and those who at least perform some religious duties among demonstrations,” he said. “But they are also probably defined as secular.”

Outside the courts in Istanbul, parents and relatives, some holding flowers, they held anxiety Bedel. Some hoped she was loved by someone’s direct release, while others prevailed with frustration. One family member, who asked to remain anonymous in fear of officials, told the local media that the detained students “studied the day and night to enter the best universities.”

“Look at the treatment they now receive. No rights. No law. No justice,” she said.

Another woman has shown a picture of his son with black eye to journalists. “He told me,” Mom, they beat me, “Suza said. The other woman said she was a patient on the cancer that left the dawn.” What were these children doing? Did they kill someone? What did they even do? “

About 300 demonstrators spent EID rest in prison separate from their families.

Lawyers for several demonstrators were told the associated press that students were kept in overcrowded cells and face physical and verbal harassment, as well as limited access to meals, as prison commissioners are closed for EID. Lawyers are also afraid that students could miss the exams or be expelled as “punishment” for participating in protests.

On Thursday, the police issued a statement describing as “Villas Defamation” claim that women have sexually attacked in custody.

The Ministry of the Interior said at least 150 police officers were injured in conflicts with protesters. Pictures from protest showed riots police police using tearaves and plastic pellets, while students threw plastic bottles and bottles.

Essen says protests can mark a key moment for Turkey.

“Will the police use against them, make them throw them with a towel after a certain point, and will this be a long-term thing? If the Turkish will become democratic. If it happens, all that goes towards a very bad place,” he said.

The young women’s protester who wears a mask looked at the quotation in the police who read near the city hall last week.

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