site.btaRamadan Ends, Protests in Turkiye Resume

The opposition is getting ready to resume its protests against the arrest of Istanbul Mayor, Ekrem Imamoglu on corruption charges with a new rally in the city tomorrow. The protesting students plan an economic boycott by refusing to shop on that day.

In Turkiye, the celebration of Eid al-Fitr, locally known as Ramazan Bayramı, the Muslim holiday that marks the end of Ramadan, is observed as a three-day public holiday and Tuesday is the last of those days. The authorities, however, gave additional days off and many Turks will prolong their vacation until the end of the week.

Despite this, the protests might resume as soon as Wednesday, keeping in mind that the leader of the opposition Republican People’s Party, Ozgur Ozel, said the opposition will organize rallies in various districts of Istanbul Wednesdays and in a different Turkish province each weekend.

Students from different universities, supporting Istanbul Mayor Imamoglu, on their part, called for an economic boycott on the first day after the holiday, announcing that they would not buy anything on April 2, opposition newspaper Cumhuriyet wrote.

Many students, active participants in the protest against the jailing of Imamoglu, have boycotted their studies in the past days in support of the opposition mayor. In the current holiday week, the students were on vacation, since their professors were not working on the public holiday.

“History will write about you. You are writing history! You are setting an example for the world!” With these words the jailed mayor turned to the young people, protesting in his support.

According to Cumhuriyet, a substantial part of over 300 people who are still under arrest because of the rallies are young people. Since the beginning of the protests, sparked by the arrest of the mayor on March 19, nearly 2,000 people have been detained.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called the protests “street terror”. In his words, their aim is to conceal the corruption at the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality.

In a post published on Monday on Ekrem Imamoglu’s profile on X, the mayor announced his support of the boycott declared by the Republican People’s Party leader Ozgur Ozel of companies that neglect protests around the country.

The mayor of Istanbul was detained on March 19. On March 23, the court kept him in jail pending his trial on corruption charges at the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality. This led to his temporary dismissal from the post and Istanbul's opposition-run municipal council elected an interim mayor to run the city, also from the opposition Republican People’s Party quota. Acting Mayor Nuri Aslan is considered to be among Imamoglu’s closest allies.

On March 23, following a Republican People’s Party primary, the party named Imamoglu as their official presidential candidate for the next election, which is regularly scheduled to be held in 2028.

Imamoglu’s arrest provoked mass protests in big cities around Turkiye which resulted in clashes with the police and hundreds detained.