More arrests as Turkey escalates crackdown over protests

More arrests as Turkey escalates crackdown over protests

Young protesters remain defiant but speak of growing fear as police crack down on the demonstrations

Turkey intensified its crackdown on anti-government protests on Friday, arresting the lawyer of the jailed Istanbul mayor and targeting more journalists, as the country faces its biggest wave of unrest in more than a decade.

Nine days after the arrest and subsequent jailing of Istanbul's popular opposition mayor, Ekrem Imamoglu, demonstrators were again out on the streets on Thursday night, despite a growing sense of fear.

Overnight, police raided more homes, and Imamoglu -- seen as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's biggest political rival -- said his lawyer Mehmet Pehlivan had been "detained on fictitious grounds", in a post on X published via his legal team.

"As if the coup against democracy was not enough, they cannot tolerate the victims defending themselves. The evil that a handful of incompetent people are inflicting on our country is growing," the mayor wrote. 

"Release my lawyer immediately!"

It was not clear on what grounds Pehlivan had been detained but opposition broadcaster Halk TV said it was linked to allegations of "laundering assets originating from a crime".

He was later freed on condition that he does not leave the country.

The Istanbul Bar Association, meanwhile, said that 20 minors had been arrested between March 22 to 25 on charges of violating a ban on protests.

Seven were still in custody, it said.

Turkey's repressive response to its worst bout of street unrest since 2013 has been sharply condemned by rights groups and drawn criticism from abroad.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio raised concerns over Ankara's handling of the protests and French President Emmanuel Macron denounced its "systematic attacks" on opposition figures and freedom of assembly.

- Media arrests -

Police detained two Turkish women journalists in dawn raids on their homes, the Turkish Journalists' Union (TGS) said on X.

"Another dawn raid. Two of our colleagues who were following the #Sarachane protests were detained," it said, referring to the name of the district where Istanbul City Hall is located. 

"Let journalists do their job! Stop these unlawful detentions!" the union said.

Swedish journalist Joakim Medin has also been jailed, his employer Dagens ETC said Friday, after he was held a day earlier as he arrived in the country to cover the demonstrations.

Turkish media said that Medin has been accused of having "insulted the president", and being a "member of an armed terrorist organisation".

"I know that these accusations are false, 100 percent false," his newspaper's editor-in-chief Andreas Gustavsson wrote on his X account.

Gustavsson confirmed Medin's jailing to AFP in a text message.

Sweden's Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard said the country was taking his arrest "seriously".

Medin's detention came just hours after the authorities released the last of 11 journalists arrested in dawn raids on Monday for covering the protests, among them AFP photographer Yasin Akgul.

"The decision to throw me in jail came even though my identity as a journalist was known, and evidence provided to prove it," Akgul told AFP after he was freed on Thursday. 

"I hope no other journalists will face a situation like this. But unfortunately, I fear that arbitrary acts to silence journalists and stop them from doing their job will continue in Turkey."

Turkish authorities held BBC journalist Mark Lowen for 17 hours on Wednesday before deporting him on the grounds that he posed "a threat to public order", the broadcaster said.

In a statement late on Thursday, Turkey's communications directorate said Lowen had been deported "due to a lack of accreditation".

Baris Altintas, co-director of the MLSA NGO that is helping many detained people, told AFP that authorities "seem to be very determined on limiting coverage of the protest and as such we fear that the crackdown on the press will not only continue but also increase".

In its first statement on the protests, Britain said it expected Ankara to ensure "the rule of law, including timely and transparent judicial processes", a foreign ministry spokesperson said. 

Turkey's broadcasting watchdog RTUK also slapped a 10-day broadcast ban on the opposition TV channel Sozcu on Thursday, pointing to alleged violations linked to incitement to "hatred and hostility".

- 'I'm scared' -

During Thursday night's protest, student demonstrators could be seen being rounded up by the police and taken away, an AFP correspondent said. 

"We're here for our rights but I'm scared," a 21-year-old protester called Raftel told AFP, his words echoing the unease felt by many as thousands of young demonstrators flooded Istanbul's streets.

"There are some very serious illegal things going on here, young people have been beaten for days," said Baturalp Akalin, 25, a rare protester with his face uncovered.

"We young people are on the streets of Istanbul to defend our country's democratic rights."

More than 1,879 people have been detained since March 19, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said on Thursday. 

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Originally published as More arrests as Turkey escalates crackdown over protests