Turkey’s President Called The Huge Anti-Government Protests Street Terror And Blamed The Opposition
President Erdoğan accused the opposition of using youth to further its agenda and said he will not “give in to provocations”.
After more than a week of huge anti-government protests, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has condemned the demonstrations as “street terror” and blamed the opposition.
Huge protests erupted across Turkey on March 18 after authorities arrested Istanbul’s popular mayor and main opposition candidate, Ekrem İmamoğlu over “corruption and aiding a terrorist group”.
Opposition members said İmamoğlu’s arrest was an “attempted coup against our next president”, as his party was planning to select him as the candidate to run against Erdoğan in 2028.
The government has denied İmamoğlu’s arrests are politically motivated.
President Erdoğan, who has ruled for 22 years and has been accused of authoritarianism, accused the opposition of using youth to further its agenda and said he will not “give in to provocations”.
“We will not be fooled by the cheap politics of cowards who hide behind our youth to cover up their own filth," Erdoğan said in a speech during a meeting with young people breaking their daily Ramadan fast on Tuesday, March 25.
“Those who terrorize our streets and want to turn this country into a place of chaos have nowhere to go. The path they have taken is a dead end,” he added.
Meanwhile, the opposition has called for a boycott of multiple companies, especially state media companies, which they said have given biased coverage of the demonstrations, showing little footage and describing protesters as “vandals”, according to the Guardian.
Authorities have arrested more than 1,400 protesters since the start of the protest, saying they have “terrorized the streets”, according to CNN.
