More than a dozen people have been arrested in Turkey over violence against the mayor of Istanbul and opposition supporters at an election rally, according to the justice minister, as tensions rise ahead of the next week’s elections.
Turkey’s Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag, on Monday, said that several people were detained after main opposition bloc Nation Alliance’s vice presidential candidate, Ekrem Imamoglu, and his supporters were pelted with stones during a rally in a nationalist and conservative stronghold in the eastern city of Erzurum on May 7.
Imamoglu was campaigning on top of his campaign bus on behalf of the CHP leader and presidential candidate Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the main opponent to President Erdogan.
He was forced to cut his rally short when stones were thrown at him. He later returned to the inside of his bus, where a video showed the vehicle’s windows shattered by the stones.
Several people were injured during the incident, according to Erzurum Governor Okay Memis. Turkey’s private Demiroren News Agency (DHA) reported that more than 15 people were wounded in the attack. Citing police sources, DHA said 15 people were detained after the attack.
Imamoglu maintained that police and pro-Erdogan officials in Erzurum allowed the attack to go ahead. “Police officers! There are citizens here who are injured, and you police are just standing by,” Imamoglu is heard saying in footage of the incident.
He also said he would file a criminal complaint against the governor of the conservative stronghold city and the police chief, accusing them of allowing the violence.
The attack on Imamoglu further elevated tensions in the country, which is in its final stretch, ahead of the crucial May 14 presidential and parliamentary elections to determine whether Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will extend his authoritarian rule for another term.
On the other side of the ledger, Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu blamed the attack on Imamoglu on Sunday, arguing that he provoked the disturbance by holding the rally without an official permit. “Nationalist vein in that city is at the highest level,” he told pro-government Ulke TV.
Kilicdaroglu posted a video on social media following Sunday’s incident in which he accused the people responsible of being a “militarist coalition” who seeks to “scare people away from the ballot box.”
Speaking at an election rally on Monday, Erdogan echoed a sentiment similar to his interior minister’s, despite widespread outrage. Without mentioning Imamoglu’s name, Erdogan accused the mayor of provocation and attempting to mar the election campaign.
The president also took a stab at his rival Kilicdaroglu, accusing him of being “hand in hand with terrorists.” Erdogan has claimed that Kilicdaroglu is getting support from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which Turkey, the US, and the EU have designated a terrorist group.
The opposition denies the accusation and has previously denounced such claims as divisive and dangerous campaign rhetoric.
Last week, a Kurdish-Left alliance, including the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), called on its supporters to vote for Kilicdaroglu in the elections. Some view the HDP as the political wing of the PKK, however, it strongly denies links with the terrorist group.
Erdogan, 69, who has ruled Turkey for 20 years since 2003, first as prime minister and later as president, yet faces strong political headwinds ahead of the May 14 elections. Sunday’s elections are seen as among the most consequential in Turkey’s modern history.
He is facing criticisms over Turkey’s double-digit inflation and his government has been accused of being slow to respond and lax in enforcing building codes after February’s devastating earthquake.
The crucial elections in Turkey, which lies at the crossroads of Europe and the Middle East, will seriously affect the country’s close alliance with Russia and some other key issues including Sweden joining the US-led NATO amid the Russia-Ukraine war.
Any candidate that can secure more than half the presidential vote on 14 May is the outright winner. Failing that, the race goes to a run-off two weeks later.
Press Tv
