By Turkish Minute,
The Turkish opposition will fight “until the end” against President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the leader of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) told Agence France-Presse in an interview on Wednesday, accusing the head of state of staging a “coup” with the arrest of İstanbul’s opposition mayor.
“Erdoğan carried out a coup against his own rival. He carried out a coup against the next president of Turkey, our presidential candidate. That is why our resistance and struggle against this will continue until the end,” CHP leader Özgür Özel told AFP in İstanbul.
He added the opposition must now “force” the president to hold early elections after the arrest last month of İstanbul mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, who was seen as Erdoğan’s main challenger in a poll.
The biggest opposition protests to grip Turkey since 2013 had dipped over the past 10 days with celebrations marking the end of Ramadan and universities not open.
So as not to lose the momentum, the CHP is now calling for night rallies in an İstanbul district every Wednesday.
“Then, every weekend, we will hold at least one rally in a city in Anatolia. We start the first one from Samsun,” the Black Sea city where Turkey’s founder Mustafa Kemal Atatürk launched the war of independence in 1919, Özel said.
A party petition for the release of İmamoğlu has gathered 7.2 million signatures, he said, adding that the aim is to get at least half of Turkey’s 61.4 million voters to back the campaign.
“We will give Erdoğan the biggest vote of no confidence in history,” the party leader said, reaffirming the call for snap elections.
Some “7.2 million people have signed so far this petition to force him (Erdoğan) to hold early elections,” he added.
İmamoğlu is the chief political rival of Erdoğan and the CHP candidate for the 2028 presidential election.
His detention last month set off the mass protests. Nearly 2,000 people, including students, have been arrested in a crackdown.
© Agence France-Presse
