ANKARA: The massive street protests gripping Turkiye may have been triggered by the arrest of Istanbul’s popular opposition mayor but they reflect a much broader sense of frustration, observers say.
“There is a great anger. People are spontaneously taking to the streets. Some young people are being politicized for the first time in their lives,” said Yuksel Taskin, a lawmaker from the main opposition CHP.
Wednesday’s arrest of Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu — President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s most powerful political rival — came just days before the CHP was to formally name him their candidate for the 2028 presidential race.
The move sparked a wave of protest which spread within 48 hours to more than two-thirds of Turkiye’s 81 provinces, even including strongholds of Erdogan’s ruling AKP such as the central area of Konya, as well as Trabzon and Rize on the Black Sea.
Despite a ban on protests and a heavy police presence on the streets, huge crowds of protesters have taken to the streets, including many university students who are not normally seen as politically engaged.
The protests are the biggest in Turkiye since the massive demonstrations of 2013, which began at Istanbul’s Gezi Park to protest its demolition and spread across almost the entire country.
“The feeling of being trapped — economically, socially, politically, and even culturally — was already widespread,” Kemal Can, journalist and author of numerous books on Turkish society told AFP.
Imamoglu’s arrest, he said, had sparked a strong reaction, “especially among young people worried about their future in a country where freedoms are increasingly restricted. It’s a reaction that goes well beyond Imamoglu.”
“We’re the children of the ‘raiders’ who have now grown up,” reads a slogan carried by many young protesters, using an old-fashioned term that Erdogan coined for the 2013 Gezi Park protesters when he was prime minister.
“This is not only about the CHP, but about everyone. The question is whether Turkiye will live under an authoritarian regime or be a democratic country,” said Ilhan Uzgel, who handles the party’s external relations.
In a bid to highlight the non-partisan nature of the protest movement, the CHP has invited all Turks, not just party members, to join its symbolic primary vote on Sunday when Imamoglu is to be named the party’s presidential candidate.
“We are determined to hold this primary although (the government) is trying to block it. But it will go ahead,” insisted Uzgel.
The pro-Kurdish opposition DEM, the third party in parliament, has also thrown its support behind the protests which have taken place for three nights in a row outside Istanbul City Hall.
“By using the judiciary, they are trying to reshape the opposition in order to consolidate the regime,” explained DEM lawmaker Ibrahim Akin.
DEM is regularly accused by the government of having ties with the banned Kurdish militant PKK, which is blacklisted by Ankara as a terror group.
But in recent months, the Turkish government has sought to end the decades-long conflict and last month, jailed PKK founder Abdullah Ocalan urged his fighters to lay down their weapons and disband.
“For several years, the government has sought to split the opposition, or keep it tied up with internal issues. It has succeeded several times. But this time, the opposition has thwarted this strategy,” said Can.
For Gonul Tol of the Washington-based Middle East Institute, the government’s efforts to “drive a wedge” between DEM and CHP through its peace overtures toward the PKK had clearly failed, after DEM came out strongly against Imamoglu’s arrest.
“The government now seems to be seeing how long this wave of discontent will last, hoping to weaken it through pressure, protest bans and arrests,” said Can.
“If the opposition gives in to threats from the authorities who are accusing it of provoking the street, and gives the impression its determination has weakened, the government will increase the pressure,” he said.
“The coming days will be crucial.”

BEIRUT/JERUSALEM: Israeli artillery and airstrikes hit south Lebanon on Saturday after Israel said it had intercepted rockets fired from across the border, endangering a shaky truce that ended a year-long war between Israel and Lebanese armed group Hezbollah.
That conflict marked the deadliest spillover of the Gaza war, rumbling across the border for months before a blistering Israeli offensive that wiped out Hezbollah’s top commanders, many of its fighters and much of its arsenal.
Hezbollah denied responsibility for Saturday’s strikes, saying it had “no link” to the rocket launches and that it remained committed to the ceasefire. No group claimed responsibility for the attack.
An Israeli official said that the identity of the group which fired the rockets was still unconfirmed. Six rockets were fired, the official said, three of which crossed into Israel and were intercepted.
Saturday’s exchange was the first since Israel in effect abandoned a separate ceasefire in Gaza with Palestinian militant group Hamas, an ally of Hezbollah, both backed by Israel’s arch-foe Iran.
The Israeli military said early on Saturday it had intercepted three rockets launched from a Lebanese district about six km (four miles) north of the border toward the Israeli border town of Metula, the second cross-border launch since the US-brokered ceasefire in November ended fighting.
In retaliation, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the military to “act forcefully against dozens of terror targets in Lebanon,” Netanyahu said in a statement.
Israel’s military said separately it had struck dozens of Hezbollah rocket launchers and a command center from which the group’s militants had been operating, in southern Lebanon.
Lebanon’s state news agency reported a spate of Israeli airstrikes and artillery barrages in the country’s south, including border towns and hilltops around eight km inside Lebanese territory.
Two people were killed and eight wounded by Israeli airstrikes in the south near the border, the state news agency NNA said, quoting Lebanon’s health ministry.
There were no reports of casualties in Israel.
In Gaza, health authorities said five Palestinians had been killed by Israeli fire, including a child, in incidents in Beit Lahiya and Gaza City. Israel’s military said it was looking into the report.

UN SAYS SITUATION ‘VOLATILE’
Under the November ceasefire deal, Hezbollah was to have no weapons in southern Lebanon, Israeli ground troops were to withdraw and Lebanese army troops were to deploy into the area.
The agreement specifies that Lebanon’s government is responsible for dismantling all military infrastructure in southern Lebanon and confiscating all unauthorized arms.
President Joseph Aoun ordered the Lebanese army to secure “any violation” that could threaten stability in Lebanon. The army said it had found and dismantled three “primitive rocket launchers” in the south.
Netanyahu said Israel was holding Lebanon’s government responsible for “everything taking place within its territory. Israel will not allow any harm to its citizens and its sovereignty — and will do everything in its power to ensure the safety of the citizens of Israel and the communities of the North.”
The United Nations peacekeeping force in Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, said it was “alarmed” by the border violence.
“Any further escalation of this volatile situation could have serious consequences for the region,” it said.
Prime Minister Nawaf Salam warned of a renewal of military operations in the south of Lebanon. “All security and military measures must be taken to show that Lebanon decides on matters of war and peace,” he said.
The ceasefire ended Israel’s intense bombardment and ground operations in Lebanon and Hezbollah’s daily rocket barrages into Israel. Each side has accused the other of failing to implement the deal in full.
Israel says Hezbollah still has military infrastructure in the south. Lebanon and Hezbollah say Israel is occupying Lebanese land by continuing to carry out some airstrikes and keeping its troops at five hilltop positions near the frontier.