Criticism of Erdogan: Human rights activists denounce police violence in Türkiye

Shortly before a planned large demo in the Turkish metropolis of Istanbul, human rights organizations asked President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to stop attacks on peaceful demonstrators. In the joint explanation of Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and 13 other organizations, it was said that it was alerted “about the recent escalation of the state approach against freedom of expression and assembly after the arrest of the Mayor of Istanbul Ekrem İmoGlu”. According to a survey, the protests are supported by a majority of Turks.

The police are hard against protesters, sometimes brutal. The politician and lawyer Sezgin Tanrikulu, who is active for the largest opposition party, also accused the emergency services of sexual violence. Exact figures for injured demonstrators are not published, the police only speak of more than 100 injured officials.

Thousands also protest on Thursday

Meanwhile, the protests in various cities in the country do not tore off on Thursday. According to reports, thousands of people reported the ninth evening in a row – including in Izmir, Istanbul and the capital Ankara. Numerous people were arrested again.

The Turkish opposition called for the big demo on Saturday in Istanbul. CHP boss Özgür Özel said that the protests continued until an early presidential election was scheduled or the Mayor of Istanbul, Istanbul, who is now dismissed, would be released from prison.

Since Imamoglus arrest on March 19 in Turkey, tens of thousands of people have largely been demonstrating peacefully against the government of Erdogan every day. The demonstrators accuse the President of wanting to politically political colds with the help of the judiciary. So far, the popular opposition politician has been given chances of being able to beat Erdogan in a next presidential election.

According to the Turkish Ministry of the Interior, almost 1,900 people have been temporarily arrested since the start of the protests, including several journalists. The protests known by Erdogan as the “violent movement” referred to by the opposition were banned in several cities. In Istanbul, the governor’s office has now expired this ban on protest.

Human rights activists: police officers use plastic floors indiscriminately

The human rights organizations continued to complain that the protests were answered with “unjustified and illegal police violence”. People were beaten and kicked with batons when they lay on the ground. Police officers would have used pepper spray, tear gas, plastic floors and water cannons against the demonstrators, which had led to numerous injuries.

Flat -rate banners such as in Istanbul, Ankara, Antalya and Izmir are disproportionate and not to be justified. Media must be made possible to provide the public with the necessary information and to report on state pressure on events free of charge, it was also said with a view to repression against government -critical television stations. The signatories of the explanation also include several journalist associations and the PEN Author Association International.

Survey: Majority of the Turks supports protests

Meanwhile, the Konda survey institute announced about the platform X, a majority of people in Turkey supported the protests against the dismissal of the Mayor of Istanbul. 21 percent of those surveyed considered protest to be justified, 52 percent support the resistance as long as he does not endanger public order. 27 percent therefore spoke out against the protests.

Criticism of the government’s approach also came from Nobel Prize for Literature Orhan Pamuk. In a post on the news page “T24” he wrote of “terrifying political developments”. The already limited democracy in the authoritarian ruled Turkey ends with “the candidate who is most popular with the people and receives the most votes in prison in the next election”.

Media supervision imposed hard punishments against TV channels

On Thursday, according to the Anka news agency, demonstrators pulled in front of the seat of the media supervision RTÜK in Istanbul after they imposed hard punishments against several opposition channels – including a ten -day broadcaster for Sözcü TV. According to the report, people chanted “Free Press, Free Türkiye”. A protest in front of a shopping center in the Sisli district of Istanbul was prevented by the police and resolved with numerous arrests, as the “Bianet” portal reported.