More than 1,000 arrested in Turkey amid huge anti-government protests

Turkish authorities have arrested more than 1,100 people, including journalists, while bombarding the social media platform X with requests to block hundreds of accounts after tens of thousands took to the streets in the largest anti-government protests in years.

- Ruth Michaelson

One journalist was detained while covering demonstrations outside Istanbul city hall, while nine others were detained in dawn raids.

The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, speaking after a cabinet meeting in the capital, Ankara, called the protests a "movement of violence".

He said the country's main opposition Republican People's party (CHP) would be held accountable for injuries to police officers and damage to property, adding that they should stop "provoking" the public.

The sweeping arrests came the morning after the Istanbul mayor, Ekrem İmamoğlu, was arrested on corruption charges and sent to a high-security prison on the outskirts of the city, on the same day he was named the opposition's candidate for president.

Mass demonstrations triggered by İmamoğlu's detention are the largest in Turkey in more than a decade. The protests have resulted in increasing pushback from the Turkish authorities, with police now readily deploying pepper spray, teargas and armoured water cannon lorries against crowds gathering in Istanbul as well as other major towns and cities across the country.

Yesterday evening, crowds of students filled streets in the Beşiktaş neighbourhood, but were quickly hemmed in by lines of riot police.