Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu's arrest sparks mass protests - video Dailymotion

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00:00Turkey is seeing its biggest protests in more than a decade.

00:03Hundreds of thousands of people rallied in Istanbul on Friday evening,

00:07angry at the detention on Wednesday of the city's opposition mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu.

00:12They were defying a ban on demonstrating.

00:14Opposition leader Özgür Özel, head of the mayor's Republican People's Party, or CHP,

00:20urged people to demonstrate peacefully.

00:22He condemned a ban in place on protests in the city.

00:25If you try to harm Mayor Ekrem,

00:33Istanbul itself will break the hand that reaches out against its will.

00:40As he spoke, clashes erupted on the sidelines of the protest,

00:44with riot police firing tear gas and rubber bullets.

00:49Clashes also broke out in Ankara and here in the western coastal city of Izmir,

00:54where police fired water cannons and tear gas against protesters.

01:00İmamoğlu is President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's biggest political rival.

01:06He now faces charges including graft and aiding a terrorist group.

01:10Tensions could rise this weekend when a court is expected to rule to formally arrest him.

01:16On Sunday, the CHP is set to announce him as its presidential candidate for the next elections,

01:21currently set for 2028.

01:24Erdoğan's government rejects claims that

01:26legal actions against opposition figures are politically motivated.

01:34Pointing to the streets instead of cauldrons to defend theft,

01:39plunder, lawlessness and fraud is a grave irresponsibility.

01:47European leaders have called the detention a sign of democratic backsliding in Turkey.

01:53Erdoğan has been in power as either prime minister or president for more than two decades.

01:58He was mayor of Istanbul from 1994 to 1998.

Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu's arrest sparks mass protests

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