More than 340 held after mass protests in Turkiye

Turkiye's largest protests in a decade follow the arrest of Istanbul's mayor, sparking clashes and arrests across the country.

More than 340 people were arrested following Turkiye’s biggest street protests in over a decade sparked by the detention of Istanbul’s powerful Opposition Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, a Minister said on Saturday (March 22, 2025).

Hundreds of thousands of people hit the streets across the country late Friday (March 21, 2025), sparking clashes with riot police in Turkiye's three largest cities: Istanbul, the capital Ankara and the western coastal city of Izmir.

Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said “343 suspects were caught in the protests that took place in Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, Adana, Antalya, Canakkale, Eskisehir, Konya and Edirne,” warning that those who sought to sow “chaos and provocation.. will definitely not be tolerated!”

It was the third straight night that protesters rallied in support of Mr. Imamoglu — President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s biggest political rival, whose arrest Wednesday (March 19, 2025) triggered a massive show of defiance that spread from Istanbul to more than 50 of Turkey’s 81 provinces.

During the evening, fierce clashes broke out between protesters and riot police, who fired tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannon to disperse them in Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir.

After spending his third night in custody, Mr. Imamoglu — who was arrested just days before the CHP was to name him their candidate for the 2028 presidential race — began speaking to police on Saturday (March 22, 2025) morning in connection with the “terror” probe, party sources told AFP.

He was then expected to appear before prosecutors at Caglayan courthouse at 1800 GMT to be questioned in both the graft and the terror probes, they said.