Nearly 160,000 people participated last night in another protest in support of the arrested mayor of Istanbul, Ekrem Imamoglu, BTA reported.
The demonstration was the fourth consecutive rally of the protests that the main opposition Republican People's Party /HRP/ organizes every Wednesday in a certain neighborhood against the arrest of the mayor of the metropolis, Ekrem Imamoglu, under the motto “The Nation Stands Up for Its Will“.
The arena of last night's demonstration was “Bayazıt“ Square, where Istanbul University is located, the largest and oldest higher education institution in Turkey, which was founded in 1453 d.
By a decision of the university management on March 18, İmamoğlu's diploma was canceled, which was followed by his detention on charges of corruption. According to Turkish media, documents related to the diploma were removed from the official website of the educational institution and İmamoğlu was listed in the column with secondary education.
The rally was organized against the cancellation of İmamoğlu's certificate of higher education under the slogan “Take your diploma and come“. Many citizens, students and young people participated in the event, “Mediacorp“ reported.
The protest was organized under a strong police blockade. Media close to the opposition reported that the authorities turned off the street lights to prevent people from gathering. The rally took place under the lights of the flashlights of tens of thousands of İsem. Police prevented a large group of students and young people from joining the demonstration.
It was also announced before the rally that a report had been received of a possible bomb attack during the protest, but it later turned out to be a false alarm, the media added.
The leader of the People's Democratic Party (PDP) Özgür Özel said that about 160,000 people attended the rally. Also, that 14 million have been collected so far. 800 thousand signatures on the petition demanding the immediate release of Imamoglu, who was elected as the official presidential candidate of the People's Democratic Party (HDP), and the holding of early elections before 2028, when they should be held according to the regulations.
Yozel emphasized that the cancellation of Imamoglu's diploma is because he is a competitor of Erdogan.
„If you are an opponent of Erdogan, your right can be taken away, even though 31 years have passed. From here, I appeal to the members of the judiciary that we will seek our rights against this illegal behavior. We have filed the necessary cases and we will do it,”, the opposition leader said, „Halk TV“ reported.
According to Özel, the opposition rallies will continue without interruption in Istanbul and the province.