– They detained us for several hours, recorded our statements, questioned. Ultimately, this time they released, but with the information that we would never get a job in the public sector again – the activists say, who at the end of March gathered at the Maltepe Square in the protest on the protest in defense of the screen of ̇mamoğlu. They do not want to provide their data in public, because they remember what it may end for them – some of them in Turkish detention have already spent weeks. For criticism of power they were accused of relationships with terrorist organizations, isolated from their families, some lost their jobs for supporting the opposition.
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Despite this, now they stood in a crowd of several million people dissatisfied with detention Ekrema ̇mamoğlu – opposition policy, which has just become a presidential candidate Turkey On behalf of the Republican People's Party (CHP), although the elections are planned only for 2028. And yet the Turks now went out into the streets of all large cities: They were in Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, Bursie, Adan, Antalya. These are business centers, academic centers, important tourist points on the map of the country.
Protests in Istanbul. The police used water cannons Reuters
People had slogans on the banners calling for the release of the screen of ̇mamoğlu, appeals for the return of real democracy and adjective choices: truly common and above all equal, in which the opposition is even equal to the governing access to state media. Some activists were disguised: the world media circulated a photo from Antalya, on which shows the chapled pikachu, and on the lips of many observers the question was: “Gotta Catch 'em all”?
Because the police came out opposite the police and had no resistance to massively suppress the congregations, and catch the next participants and send them to arrests. The International Journalistic Federation described what can be seen in the pictures reporting events:
Peace protests met with unjustified and unlawful use of force by the police, people were beaten with sticks and dug when they lay on the ground. The law enforcement officers used pepper spray, tear gas, plastic balls and water cannons against protesters without distinction, causing numerous injuries.
What is happening today in Turkey and why right now? Will the last events be a step towards the democratization of the country or or authoritarian rule?
Transmission ban
For now, thousands of protesters have been behind bars. Among them, at least five hundred students, as reported by the AFP agency, although these numbers can be much larger. What exactly? Besting on official government data may be insufficient to show a picture of the situation, and journalists who could provide precise data are silenced.
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