The polemic situation throughout Turkey continues. Recep Tayyip Erdogan faces his greatest challenge ever since he came to power as Prime Minister in 2003- 14. He has been President of Turkey since 2014.
Since, on March 19th, he jailed the Ekrem Imamoglu, opposition contender as presidential candidate, millions have taken to the streets in major Turkish cities. Imamoglu is currently the elected Mayor of Istanbul, holding his position since 2019 and the main opposition party, The Republican People’s Party, has chosen him as its candidate for the next presidential elections in 2028. The municipal authorities have elected Nuri Aslam as Interim Mayor while Imamoglu remains incarcerated.
Erdogan,
who has been described by his critics as authoritarian and running an elective
dictatorship, is concerned about growing opposition support as indicated in
recent local elections. Technically he is not allowed to stand once more as President,
but it is assumed he will change the law that prohibits that!
He has been retaliating to the popular demonstrations with stiff measures: around 2,000 arrests have been made, a tv channel closed down and, several Turkish journalists have been imprisoned for …. telling it like it is. A BBC reporter Mark Lowen, was detained and later deported for allegedly ‘being a threat to public order.’
The continued rallies indicate how popular
Imamoglu and his party are.
Man challenging authoritarianism - this photo from
Al Jazeera news agency says it all:
A dervish -
associated with the softer, spiritual, esoteric side of Islam - dances alone
and gas-masked-up before a threatening police barricade.
Go Sufi! 
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