Hundreds of thousands of Turkish citizens defied demonstration bans, arrest threats and government crackdowns for a fourth consecutive night, taking to the streets of Istanbul and other major cities to protest what they see as extreme democratic backsliding.
The mass demonstrations followed the political persecution of Ekrem Imamoglu, mayor of Istanbul and Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s main political challenger, who was detained on Wednesday and formally arrested on corruption charges on Sunday, the day he was expected to be selected as the opposition party’s presidential candidate in 2028. In a pre-emptive move to gag any dissent, the Turkish government restricted the use of social media and banned all public demonstrations for four days as the judiciary processed Imamoglu’s case.
But instead of silencing the backlash, the purge of the popular mayor sparked some of the largest protests in the country in more than a decade.
“We haven’t seen a movement with this kind of momentum since Gezi in 2013,” Dilara, a student at Istanbul’s Bogazici University who has been marching outside city hall every day since Thursday, tells Kathimerini English edition.
“It feels like Turkish society is ready to seize the moment and stand up against authoritarianism, arrogance and bad governance, despite the threats and intimidation tactics,” she says, expressing hope that unlike the 2013 demonstrations, which were largely decentralized and eventually fizzled out, the presence of a popular figurehead like Imamoglu this time around “could galvanize the movement even more.”
In addition to the mayor of Istanbul and over 100 opposition officials, hundreds of Turkish citizens have been arrested during the protests across the country, with arrests taking place in all major cities, including Ankara, Izmir and even traditional AKP bastions like Konya or Adana.
Turkish officials have warned that there will be “no tolerance for those who seek to violate social order,” with Erdogan himself condemning the mass demonstrations and accusing the opposition of trying to “disturb the peace and polarize our people.
The crackdown also extended to the digital world, with more than 50 suspects arrested for social media posts and accused of inciting hatred and division, and dozens more under investigation. In addition, tech platforms like X and Meta were quick to comply with the Turkish government’s requests to silence the opposition, suspending several accounts that posted information about the ongoing mass protests.
But the demonstrations showed no signs of abating on Saturday night, spreading to more than 55 of Turkey’s 81 provinces, lasting well past midnight and sparking clashes with riot police.
Meanwhile, many protesters and university students successfully circumvented bans and digital suppression by creating secondary social media accounts or relying on robust VPNs to bypass censorship, according to a media activist who spoke on condition of anonymity.
“Even with the crackdown, social media is still the main source – Twitter, TikTok, WhatsApp, Instagram,” Yusuf Can, coordinator and analyst at the Wilson Center’s Middle East Program, told Kathimerini English edition.
“It’s so widespread now that even family group chats are exploding,” he says, adding that YouTube and livestreams from opposition channels are also keeping people informed.
“The protests feel different this time because people are fed up with Erdogan. He’s deeply unpopular, unlike İmamoglu, who was clearly on his way to beating him. Everyone sees his arrest for what it is – and they know that if they let this slide, there may never be another election where their vote counts.”
The suppression of information also hit Turkey’s traditional media ecosystem, as the AKP-controlled RTÜK-the state agency that oversees radio and television-ordered a shutdown of all live broadcasts in the country on Saturday night, a move that several Turkish legal analysts called a clear violation of its constitutional mandate for impartiality. The agency is notorious for its strict media-silencing policies, including heavy fines for content critical of Erdogan’s government in 2024 and punishing forest fire coverage as defamatory in 2021.
However, the RTÜK shutdown was ignored by several opposition channels this weekend, including the popular Halk TV, which continued to broadcast images from the mass protests in Istanbul, in another sign of a wider defiance of government control.
The arrests and crackdown also didn’t stop some of Turkey’s largest trade unions, business groups, NGOs and civil society organizations – including the United Public Employees’ Unions Confederation and the Union of Property Owners – from expressing their support for the opposition and opposing Erdogan’s political and social crackdown.
Financial markets haven’t reacted well to the democratic backsliding and instability in Turkey either, as the lira plunged and the Borsa Istanbul 100 index fell 6%, driven by a sell-off in stocks by local investors. Economic uncertainty is expected to add to the turmoil, with some analysts citing the stagnant economy and rising unemployment as additional key reasons for the momentum of the protests.
For his part, the mayor of Istanbul continues to communicate with the Turkish people through videos and social media posts, appearing calm and confident, echoing his 2019 election statement that “everything will be fine.”
“You cannot and must not remain silent,” he wrote on his X profile over the weekend, in an inclusive rally calling on members of the ruling party and the judiciary to stand up against injustice.