When protesters gathered outside Istanbul City Hall last week to protest the arrest of Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, 26-year-old Azra was initially too scared to break the ban. But as protests grew in universities and cities across Turkey, she couldn't resist any longer.
"I saw the sparkle in people's eyes and the excitement on their faces and decided I had to come," she said with a smile, standing among the tens of thousands of people who defied the ban and filled the streets around city hall on Friday night.
Although she was part of the crowd, Azra feared the repercussions and did not want to reveal her full name. Many protesters wore masks to avoid being identified by facial recognition technology, fearing the tear gas and pepper spray that police occasionally used. Others, however, laughed and took selfies as fireworks lit up the night sky.
The arrest of the mayor of Turkey's largest city at dawn last week is seen as a turning point in Turkey's long slide away from democracy. Opponents of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan fear it is an attempt to eliminate the only politician who could defeat him in upcoming elections, which must be held by 2028 at the latest.
İmamoğlu and more than 100 others, including municipal officials and the director of a construction firm working for the city government, have been detained and charged with embezzlement and corruption, charges the mayor denies. He also denies terrorism charges, which relate to alleged cooperation with a leftist political coalition ahead of local elections last year, when Erdogan's Justice and Development Party (AKP) suffered heavy defeats.
Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc tried to dismiss suspicions that the charges were politically motivated.
"Attempts to link judicial investigations to our president are, to put it mildly, impudence and irresponsibility," he said.
Within days, protests over İmamoğlu's arrest grew into a broader movement.
"This is bigger than İmamoğlu. This is a fight for democracy, for rights and equal opportunities," said Azra, surrounded by protesters.
President Erdogan has long been trying to bring Istanbul back under government control, which has further fueled the enthusiasm of protesters who defied a ban on gatherings in the city where he began his political career as mayor. Outside a metro station, as hundreds of people chanted anti-government slogans and banged on handrails, another protester, named Diler, said the protests were a response to years of mounting pressure.
"We have problems in the economy, education, healthcare," she said, alluding to the economic crisis and rising costs of living. "We are fed up with this government," Diller stressed.
Imamoglu's supporters claim that 300.000 people gathered for the protest on Friday night, while videos showed demonstrations and clashes with police in major cities across the country. Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said 343 people were detained in nine cities for taking part in the protests.
Turkish authorities have stepped up measures to suppress the protests, including blocking traffic on two bridges leading to Istanbul's city hall and closing surrounding streets with the presence of special police.
Erdogan has expressed growing dissatisfaction with calls for protests by the opposition leader, saying that Turkey is not a country where decisions will be made on the streets.
"We will not succumb to street anarchy," he stressed.
Despite the strong domestic reaction to İmamoğlu's arrest, the international response was lukewarm. The most concrete response was financial - estimates suggest that the Central Bank of Turkey spent a record $11,5 billion to support the lira the day after the arrest, as investors fled and the currency plummeted.
Other reactions were much weaker. A spokesman for the UN Secretary-General said they "hope that the rules of a fair trial will be respected," while US State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said that "Washington will not comment on the internal decisions of another state."
US President Donald Trump and Erdogan spoke by phone days before Imamoglu's arrest, with reports that the Turkish leader wanted a meeting at the White House in the coming months.
US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff told conservative journalist Tucker Carlson that the conversation between Trump and Erdogan was "transformative".
"I think there is very good and positive news coming out of Turkey right now," he added.
"The international climate gives Erdogan great confidence," says Gonul Tol of the Washington-based Middle East Institute.
"The US president is undermining democracy there, which means that America is increasingly turning in on itself. He simply doesn't care what autocrats around the world are doing to their people. This is seriously affecting the global climate in which autocrats believe they can do whatever they want," Tol points out.
European leaders, who have previously been fierce critics of Erdogan, such as French President Emmanuel Macron, have yet to speak out on the events in Turkey, with expectations that they will increasingly depend on Ankara to send peacekeepers to Ukraine.
"With Trump's return to the White House and his turn to Russia regarding Ukraine, Europe is panicking and trying to strengthen its defenses. In this climate, where Europe feels like it has to defend itself against Russia, there is increasing talk of cooperation with Erdogan," explains Tol.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is the highest-ranking European official to offer any criticism, saying Turkey must protect democratic values, especially the rights of elected officials.
Soner Çagaptay, Erdogan biographer and analyst at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, believes that such statements will not cause any change in policy.
"It is highly unlikely that any concrete measures will follow – there will be no sanctions, no withdrawal of summit invitations, nor will Turkey be excluded from future planning. There will be no real consequences, because Turkey has positioned itself as a significant power in this new global order," he said.
The CHP is expected to officially declare İmamoğlu its presidential candidate this weekend, following a symbolic internal party vote. Citizens gathered outside the city hall are insisting that he remain the opposition candidate - even if he has to run from prison.
Çagaptay warns that trying to neutralize İmamoğlu could backfire. Erdogan was also briefly imprisoned in the 1990s while he was mayor of Istanbul, which only strengthened his support and launched him into national politics.
"He went to prison as a mayor and came out as a national hero. Erdogan believes that this will not happen again now, thanks to his complete control of institutions and the media, and he does not care about international criticism," the analyst said.
Protests intensify in Istanbul during interrogation of arrested mayor
Hundreds of supporters of detained Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu gathered today outside a courtroom in Istanbul, where his questioning continued on allegations of corruption and links to terrorism, Beta reports.
The mayor's arrest has heightened tensions and sparked protests across Turkey, with large numbers of demonstrators gathering in several cities to express their opposition.
Police questioned Imamoglu for about five hours today as part of an investigation into allegations of aiding the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), the Cumhuriyet newspaper reported.
The day before, he had been questioned for four hours on corruption charges. The mayor denied all charges during both interrogations.
He was later transferred to the courtroom for questioning, along with about 90 other people who were arrested with him.
Authorities blocked access to the courthouse, barricaded local streets, and closed nearby metro stations. Hundreds of police officers and dozens of water cannon vehicles were deployed, yet hundreds of people gathered outside the building chanting "Rights, justice, law."
People also began gathering in front of City Hall, for the fourth night in a row, in support of the mayor.
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