site.btaTurkiye's Main Opposition Party Leader Calls for Boycott of Businesses Ignoring Country's Protests

The leader of Turkiye's main opposition party, the Republican People's Party (CHP), has called for a boycott of businesses that neglect the country's protests sparked by the arrest of Ekrem Imamoglu, the ousted mayor of Istanbul and political rival of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

CHP leader Özgür Özel is scheduled to visit Imamoglu in prison later in the day, where he was sent after a court on Sunday ordered him to remain in custody on corruption charges in Istanbul's Metropolitan Municipality.

At Monday night's rally in front of the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality's main building in Istanbul's Sarachane Park, Özel called for a boycott of a number of businesses and restaurants.

"If they don't want to see you, don't want to see what's going on at Sarachane, then you should knock them to the ground. Don't buy from them, don't drink coffee there," Özel said, listing businesses and restaurant chains that he said were neglecting the protests. Among those named are chain coffee shops, carpet companies, furniture companies, gas stations and others.

A day earlier, Özel called for a boycott of pro-government media outlets for not covering the protests.

On Monday evening, despite bans on gatherings and demonstrations in force in Istanbul, Izmir and Ankara, a sixth protest rally was held in solidarity with the ousted and jailed mayor of Istanbul. Tens of thousands of people of all ages, carrying red flags, turned out for the rally in Sarachane. Many young people, students, representatives of workers' trade unions, led by the Confederation of Revolutionary Trade Unions of Turkiye (DISK), opposition parties, parents with children also took part. The demonstrators raised slogans in support of Ekrem Imamoglu, chanted calls for the resignation of Erdogan and the government. 

In his speech to the rally participants, Özel pointed out that Ekrem Imamoglu should be tried in freedom and called for the trial to be broadcast live by state television TRT.

Earlier on Tuesday morning, police in Istanbul detained a total of 41 participants from the Sarachane protests on suspicion of "insulting President Erdogan and his family, violating the ban on gatherings and demonstrations, and disobeying a law enforcement officer," the Anadolu News Agency reported. 

In recent days protests have erupted in many cities of Turkiye against the detention of the mayor of Istanbul and a number of members of the CHP. Imamoglu was detained on March 19 as part of investigations into corruption and terrorism. Nonetheless, in internal party elections on March 23, he was named the presidential candidate of the CHP. Imamoglu is currently in prison custody awaiting trial and has been removed from the mayoralty, and at a meeting on Wednesday the Istanbul City Council will elect an interim mayor in his place.

The government categorically rejects accusations that the prosecution against Imamoglu and his associates is political. After a meeting of his cabinet on Monday, Erdogan urged the opposition to stop disrupting public order and to hold corruption to account.