FLASH
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"The era of 'Me' in this country will end and the era of 'we' will begin. One person will lose and everyone else will gain"...
Tens of thousands of people protested in Ankara on Sunday against a court case that could topple the leader of the main opposition on Monday, following a year-long legal crackdown on hundreds of its members.
Live footage showed crowds of people chanting for President Erdogan's resignation, while waving Turkish flags and party banners.
A court's decision on Monday whether to declare the 2023 congress of the Republican People's Party (CHP) invalid due to alleged procedural irregularities could reshape the party, roil financial markets and affect the timing of general elections scheduled for 2028. The court could also delay the decision.
Speaking at the rally on Sunday, CHP leader Ozgur Ozel said the government was trying to stay in power by undermining democratic norms and suppressing dissent after the opposition's victories in local elections last year. Ozel also called for early general elections. Turkey's opposition has vowed to resist.
"This case is political. The accusations are slander. Our comrades are innocent. What is being done is a coup, a coup against the next president, against the next government. We will resist, we will resist, we will resist, " Ozel said in his speech to the crowd.
The government says the judiciary is independent and denies any political motives. Turkey has arrested more than 500 people, including 17 mayors, over the past year in Istanbul and other CHP-run municipalities across the country as part of corruption investigations, according to a Reuters tally.
Hundreds of CHP members have been jailed awaiting trial in a wide-ranging investigation into suspected links to corruption and terrorism, among them President Tayyip Erdogan's main political rival, Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu.
Imamoglu's arrest in March sparked the country's biggest protests in a decade, with hundreds of thousands of people taking to the streets, triggering a brief but significant sell-off in the lira and other Turkish assets.
In a letter sent from prison and read aloud at the rally in Ankara, Imamoglu wrote that the government is trying to predetermine the outcome of the upcoming elections by sidelining legitimate rivals. He also accused the government of undermining democracy through politically motivated judicial actions and other efforts to suppress dissent.
“ The era of ‘I’ in this country will end and the era of ‘we’ will begin. One person will lose and everyone else will win,” Imamoglu wrote. The crowd applauded and chanted “President Imamoglu” after the letter was read aloud.
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