Turkey Detains More Than 1,100 as Imamoglu Protests Intensify

# Turkey Detains More Than 1,100 as Imamoglu Protests Intensify

*Event date: 2025-03-24*

By IO Digest Desk

Turkish authorities detained more than 1,100 people in five days of protests after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, turning a challenge to one criminal case into the country's biggest anti-government demonstrations in more than a decade.

The Guardian reported that the detentions included journalists and followed the arrest of Imamoglu on corruption charges. He was sent to a high-security prison on the outskirts of Istanbul the same day he was named the opposition Republican People's Party, or CHP, candidate for president. That sequence sharpened the political meaning of the prosecution, even as Turkish authorities insisted the charges were not political.

Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said 1,133 people had been detained over five days, according to the Guardian. Many were accused of violating a citywide protest ban in Istanbul. The newspaper said authorities also restricted entry into the city over the weekend in an effort to curb the demonstrations, indicating that the state response was focused not only on arrests but also on physically limiting the protests' spread.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan cast the unrest in security terms rather than political ones. Speaking after a cabinet meeting in Ankara, he described the protests as a movement of violence and said the CHP would be held responsible for injuries to police officers and damage to property, the Guardian reported. He also accused the opposition of provoking the public.

Yet the scale of the turnout suggested anger extending beyond party activists. Tens of thousands of people took to the streets, with crowds gathering outside Istanbul city hall and in other major towns and cities. The Guardian described police using pepper spray, tear gas and armored water-cannon vehicles against demonstrators. Students also filled streets in Istanbul's Besiktas district before riot police hemmed them in.

The crackdown reached the press as well as protesters. One journalist was detained while covering demonstrations outside city hall, and nine others were picked up in dawn raids, according to the Guardian. Evin Baris Altintas, head of the Media and Law Studies Association, said many of those detained overnight were photographers, which she interpreted as an attempt to cut down on images from the demonstrations. Turkish media regulator RTUK also came under criticism after threats to suspend broadcast licenses for live protest coverage.

Online speech became another front in the confrontation. The Guardian reported that Turkish authorities sought to block hundreds of accounts on X, with the platform's global government affairs team objecting to court orders targeting more than 700 accounts belonging to news organizations, journalists, political figures, students and others inside Turkey. Altintas said at least 110 accounts had in fact been blocked, including those of journalists, feminist organizations and student groups.

The political shock has spilled into financial markets. According to the Guardian, economists estimated that Turkey's central bank spent up to $25bn in three days supporting the lira after Imamoglu's detention and the protest wave that followed. Turkey's capital markets board also banned short selling for a month because of recent developments, showing that authorities were trying to steady markets while containing a political crisis on the streets.

The event date therefore marked more than a policing action. It showed how quickly Imamoglu's arrest had broadened into a confrontation over protest rights, media freedom, online censorship and economic confidence. The Turkish government framed the unrest as disorder. The evidence cited by the Guardian showed a different reality as well: a state using mass detention, force and information controls to contain the largest anti-government mobilization Turkey has seen in years.