Riots break out at Ankara university campus after Erdogan rival detained

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00:00We've been hearing this evening reports that protests that we've been seeing in Istanbul

00:04that they've spread to university on the outskirts of Ankara.

00:08What is the very latest there?

00:10Yes, that is correct.

00:12In Ankara, a full-scale battle has been raging for several hours in the grounds of the Middle

00:20East Technical University, a private university surrounded by forest on the outskirts of Ankara.

00:29Thousands of students and opposition supporters, non-students who have gone to the university,

00:36have been demonstrating against the arrest of Ekrem Imamoglu, the mayor of Istanbul,

00:43yesterday.

00:45He was arrested and charged with fraud, bribery, membership of a criminal organization,

00:53and even having political links to the PKK, the Kurdish insurgency group.

01:00But his arrest and the filing of these charges come only days before he was expected to be

01:11officially nominated as the opposition's candidate in the next presidential election.

01:17The major opposition party to which he belongs is holding primaries on Sunday.

01:24Now, on the campus of the Middle East Technical University, the police have been firing rubber

01:32bullets, tear gas, pepper gas, and water cannon at the students.

01:37The students took shelter in the forests.

01:40The police fired tear gas canisters into the forests.

01:44My source among the students say some students fainted.

01:49Whether they lost consciousness because of the tear gas or the rubber bullets isn't known,

01:54but that some students have been injured by rubber bullets.

01:58The source said the police had prevented ambulances from coming onto the campus.

02:06It looks like a very ugly scene.

02:09Now, that is on the campus here in Ankara.

02:13In Istanbul, for the second night in a row, thousands of people have been protesting

02:19outside the Istanbul City Council offices, the offices of the detained mayor.

02:26The leader of the opposition, Özgür Özel, called on people to take to the streets

02:32to reclaim their rights, but he said they should do this without resorting to violence.

02:39In his first response to these protests, which have been going on for two days now,

02:46President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accused the opposition of failing to respond to the

02:52charges against Ekrem İmamoğlu with legal argument, saying that the opposition just

02:59uses political slogans to provoke people and to deceive the public at large.

03:08However, Human Rights Watch, which has examined the charges against Ekrem İmamoğlu,

03:15says they are politically motivated and has accused President Erdogan

03:21of weaponising the criminal justice system.

03:26Jasper, we leave it there for now.

03:27Thank you so much for joining us with all of that.

03:29That's our correspondent in Ankara, Jasper Mortimer.

03:33Well, for the first time ever,

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