Who is protesting in Turkey and why?
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Today we're in Turkey, where tens of thousands of people have been protesting.

It's the biggest in over a decade. Lots of them are students. I mean, we grow up in an atmosphere of fear, atmosphere of dictatorship. Our main hope is to save our country. We want to live in a democracy. We've been here for like five days and the weather won't stop us. More than 1,400 people have been detained in the last week. The students, which they are just using their rights to protest...

to protest every day, every morning. They are taking from their home, which they are not attacking anyone. Access to WhatsApp, Instagram and YouTube have been restricted. And this unrest started because one of Turkey's main opposition figures was arrested. We have right to vote. We have right to choose whoever we want to rule us.

We want democracy and we want the free will to choose who we want without them being imprisoned. In this episode, we're going to bring you up to speed with the situation in Turkey and explain why people there are angry. I'm Hanna Gelbart and this is What In The World from the BBC World Service.

You're going to hear more about why people are protesting in just a moment. But first, to bring you a bit of context about Turkey and its president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, let's hear from Nihan Kale, a reporter for BBC Monitoring in Istanbul. Hello. Hi. So how long has President Erdogan been in power and what has his rule been like? Erdogan is Turkey's longtime president. He has led Turkey for 22 years and he's really shaped his country dramatically.

He faced a series of crises during his time in power, including a coup attempt in 2016. But he's overcome all of them and has maintained his power for all those years, having won elections to become president. First he was prime minister and now he's president. 22 years is a long time. How popular is he? He's still widely popular in Turkey, but his popularity has declined over the recent years especially. And what is his leadership style like?

Ardon has been this leader who is much loved by supporters actually for developing Turkey tremendously, leading giant and strong infrastructure projects and for making Turkey a regional power. Especially in the very recent years, Turkey has become this sort of significant global and regional player in the Ukraine war, for instance, as a mediator. And he's been influential in the

Middle East and has significantly developed its defense industry and has become, which has become instrumental and made Turkey a major partner for, you know, many countries. But Erdogan's critics have a different opinion about him. You know, they say that he's been running Turkey in an authoritarian manner. And he has, you know, especially in recent years, has

attempted to quell and, you know, suppress political opposition. Part of that is his control of the media, right? So according to Reporters Without Borders, under Erdogan, 90% of national media is under government control. Lots of privately owned news organizations are pro-Erdogan.

But let's move on to Ekrem Imamoglu now. He's an opposition politician. He's the mayor of Istanbul, and his arrest is what first sparked these demonstrations. Can you tell me a bit more about him? Yeah. Imamoglu is this much younger politician. He is in his 50s. He has won three elections so far since he entered the race for Istanbul mayor in 2019. He has this very broad appeal. He's usually popular among secular bases.

In Istanbul especially, he's the mayor of Turkey's largest province by population. He is the mayor of a province that has almost 16 million people. And he is popular among secular bases, but he has also had this sort of appeal to conservative voters as well. You know, Turkey is divided into groups, right and left. Right is more religious, left is more secular. And we...

always divided by these two groups and Ekrem İmamoğlu just gather all us together and don't want us apart and that's what we want

And, you know, throughout his time governing Istanbul since 2019, Imamullah has been favored, especially for his policies directed at low income and working class citizens, you know, especially at a time when Turkey is experiencing the severe cost of living crisis and economic problems. And, you know, his policies have included subsidized services for these groups of people and

has made services in this expensive city very affordable for them, especially for mothers and children and students as well. And he has become the face of the opposition in Turkey. And he was seen as being on this trajectory to actually one day be able to lead the country. Why was Ekrem Imamoglu arrested? And what are some of the charges that he's facing?

Imamoglu was arrested pending trial on corruption charges. Among those charges against him, there were, you know, the accusations that he's taken part in fraud and, you know, organizing and heading criminal organizations. University students, on the day that he was arrested, they actually, you know, his students from Istanbul University, actually, they gathered together and then they broke through police barricades, which was sort of unprecedented in Turkey, you know,

That is something that encouraged a lot of students elsewhere in Turkey and across prestigious universities in Turkey and many other universities in Turkey to follow suit. And they also joined those protests and then they organized separate protests across Turkey. During these protests, also, there's been journalists who have been arrested. And Imamullah's arrest actually comes after this month long of, you know, opposition voices are calling a crackdown. Other opposition figures have also been arrested over the past few months.

What has President Erdogan said about the protests? He's called the protests, you know, street terror. And he says that the opposition is responsible for, you know, the damage that has been caused by the protests and that they will be held responsible. He's been mostly focusing on this, you know, what he's been calling vandalism and, you know, protesters injuring police officers, rioters.

And, you know, he's been saying that the opposition should instead be responding to these corruption allegations against Imamoglu instead of, you know, focusing on these protests. Why are there so many young people who've been active in these protests and what are their feelings towards the government at the moment?

Yeah, young people are actually, you know, they're saying that this isn't, they're not protesting just against the imprisonment of Imamoglu, but they're saying that, you know, this is their one last chance maybe to be able to say stop to what they're saying is Turkey becoming this sort of all out war.

autocracy. They're saying that, you know, they're defending their democracy, they're defending their votes and they're defending the will of the people. They largely see these, this arrest and, you know, Imamullah's removal from office as anti-democratic and, you know, just as an attempt to silence the opposition. But the young people are really, their opinions about these protests are mostly that, you know, they've had this sort of pent up

anger built up for so many years, especially because they're worried that they don't have a future in Turkey anymore. Their rights and freedoms are under huge danger. They feel also economically very powerless as well. A lot of things have become very unaffordable for them. They feel their job prospects are very precarious. They're struggling to find housing.

And, you know, everything's become very expensive, especially at a time when this cost of living crisis is really impacting a majority of the people in Turkey. And, you know, these young people are coming from very different political backgrounds. And, you know, some of them don't even have one movement or a political affiliation, but they're coming from socialist backgrounds, right wing nationalist backgrounds. We are from many ideologies. I mean, I do have friends here which are

Socialist, conservative, nationalist. And the only common point that binds us is to hope to restore Turkish democracy. That is why we are standing against the Erdoğan regime now. And they're all uniting in this sort of fearless and unfazed way.

way, they're unfazed by these potential consequences that they could actually also face for attending these demonstrations. They're saying that, you know, they're worried about their future in Turkey and that they want to be able to have a country where they can dream of a future. Especially also in recent years, Turkey has seen a major brain drain of, you know, young people leaving in droves, you know, many of them leaving for Europe and other countries in hopes of having a better future there. So this is the sentiment that young people are having at the moment.

Nihan, thank you so much for coming on to the podcast. Thank you very much. We've heard lots of protesters saying they want to protect their democracy. So what is the state of democracy like in Turkey right now? Here's BBC Turkish's Özge Özdemir to explain. The government is accused of using the judiciary to suppress the opposition for so long. Crackdowns on civil society and harsh responses to democratic and peaceful protests have long been criticised. Many

Many human rights organizations have reported a decline in freedom of speech. The autonomy of the universities of the students protesting in the streets have also been damaged. For many, elections were seen as a last chance to make political choices. Despite government-controlled media and the opposition struggling to find a platform, elections at least remained a trusted process. However, this crackdown, seen as an attempt by the government to control who can run in the elections, has sparked major backlash.

President Erdogan's time in office is due to expire in 2028 and under the current rules he can't stand again. But he could call an early election to try to change the constitution to allow him to stay in power for longer. If Ekrem Imamoglu is convicted of any of the charges against him, he won't be able to run for the presidency.

There have been seven days of protests and as we're recording this, Turkey's main opposition party has called for a mass rally on Saturday, calling for early elections. And you can find all the latest on this on the BBC News website. Thank you for joining us. You've been listening to What In The World from the BBC World Service. I'm Hannah Gilbert.

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