By Ylenia Gostoli, The New Arab,
Turkey’s opposition has vowed to continue a campaign of protests and civil disobedience despite a massive government crackdown on protesters, journalists, and artists.
After a pause for the Eid holidays and the temporary closure of universities, thousands of young people gathered on Tuesday in Istanbul’s Kadikoy – a neighbourhood known as an opposition stronghold – in solidarity with fellow students arrested in Sarachane.
A similar demonstration took place in Ankara. Of the roughly 2,000 protesters detained in recent weeks, around 300 remain in jail pending trial, mostly accused of taking part in banned nationwide protests against the arrest of Istanbul’s mayor, Ekrem Imamoğlu.
His detention on corruption charges – alongside that of about 100 other opposition figures – is widely seen by critics as an attempt to sideline President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s main political challenger. Erdoğan has condemned the protests as “evil” and insists the judiciary operates independently, denying any interference.
The first in a series of weekly rallies in Istanbul was held on Wednesday, organised by the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which has confirmed Imamoğlu as its presidential candidate despite his arrest and the revocation of his university degree – a move that, if upheld, could bar him from running.
This week’s rally took place in the district of Sisli, whose mayor was also arrested and replaced with a government trustee.
CHP leader Ozgur Ozel has also pledged to hold a rally in a different Anatolian city each weekend and has launched a signature campaign aimed at securing the backing of more than half the population for Imamoğlu’s release and for early elections, which, according to Ozel, should be held “no later than November”.
“Imamoğlu was a very popular politician. Clearly the regime is headed in a more repressive direction. I don’t think that Erdoğan can turn the ship around, so in that sense, he crossed his Rubicon,” Berk Esen, an associate professor of political science at Istanbul’s Sabanci University, told The New Arab.
“The opposition is going to be running an uphill battle with the ruling party, very determined to use force whenever it is necessary in order to curb down the protests,” he added.
For a second week this Wednesday, civil society groups have backed a boycott campaign urging citizens to refrain from purchases or economic activity for a day. Ozel had previously called for a boycott of government-linked companies and media outlets that failed to broadcast footage of the protests.
But even those campaigns have been met with a crackdown, with some government officials, including Turkey’s trade minister, saying the campaign’s promoters are endangering the country’s economy – already for years plagued by rampant inflation and a plummeting lira.
At least eleven people, including artists, have been arrested for publicly supporting the boycott, which has prompted several international musicians to cancel scheduled performances in Istanbul.
The campaign of arrests hasn’t spared journalists, with at least 15 arrested since the protests begun, nine of whom were taken from their homes in dawn raids and are mostly facing unprecedented charges of having taken part in the protests.
Further complicating the picture is the Kurdish factor. The pro-Kurdish DEM party, currently the third largest in parliament, has been engaged in a delicate dialogue with the government for months, culminating in a call from PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan to lay down arms, broadcast through a message from the prison where he has been held since 1999.
The DEM leadership expressed solidarity with Imamoğlu, but street mobilisation among Kurds has been limited. Many would point out that for years, dozens of democratically elected Kurdish mayors have been routinely removed from office and replaced by government-appointed officials, criticising that the main opposition party has done little to stand by them or prevent it from happening.
“The Kurdish movement and the DEM Party have supported the CHP in the past three elections through a kind of informal alliance in major cities, which helped the CHP win key mayoral seats in both 2019 and 2024,” Mesut Yeğen, a researcher at the Reform Institute who specialises in the Kurdish issue, tells The New Arab.
“At the same time, the peace process remains deeply important for the Kurdish population, leaving them in a difficult position,” he adds. On an institutional level, “the DEM Party, the PKK, and the government are still engaged – they’re still on the track,” Yeğen explains, noting that it would be risky for the government to abandon the process, as it is closely tied to political dynamics and the Kurdish leadership in Syria.
According to Berk Esen, the country’s future will largely depend on the opposition’s ability to sustain the momentum of the popular protests.
“If the momentum is lost and popular protests die out, we’re looking at a consolidation of this authoritarian regime with elections no longer creating a way out for the opposition,” Esen says.
“If, however, the protests prove to be sustainable, coupling that with a fragile economy, it is going to really weaken this regime. That is not going to end this regime overnight, but it will create a process of gradual decline, which may bring about its end.”
Ylenia Gostoli is a reporter currently based in Istanbul, Turkey. She has covered politics, social change, and conflict across the Middle East and Europe. Her work on refugees, migration, and human trafficking has won awards and grants.
