Over the weekend, Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) organized a major rally in the central Anatolian city of Yozgat, following a similar event in the Black Sea city of Samsun. Since the March 19th arrest of İstanbul Mayor and CHP presidential candidate Ekrem İmamoğlu, the party has organized a series of rallies in various districts of Istanbul and across the country.
| Turkish opposition organizes major rally in heartland of regime support |
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| Turkish opposition organizes major rally in heartland of regime support |
The CHP rallies aim to sustain the opposition’s momentum created by İmamoğlu’s arrest and push for early elections. Turkey’s next presidential elections are scheduled for 2028, but snap elections could be triggered with a supermajority vote in parliament.
The central Anatolian city of Yozgat, near Turkey’s geographical center, is famed for its conservatism. In local elections in 2024, the right-wing Islamist New Welfare Party (YRP) won control of the province, after years of rule by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP).
Özel rallies Yozgat against the AKP
CHP Chairman Özgür Özel headlined Saturday’s rally in Yozgat, declaring the end of AKP dominance in the province:
“We are challenging [Turkey’s ruling AKP government] from Yozgat. We have broken the mould here in Yozgat. They [AKP] said ‘Yozgat won’t react [to the jailing of İmamoğlu]’ and ‘Yozgat won’t turn out to rally.'”
Özel, who arrived at the rally in Yozgat’s central square with farmers riding a tractor, announced that Saturday’s rally was one of the biggest in the city’s history.
In his remarks, the CHP Chairman also took aim at President Erdoğan’s own path from imprisoned Istanbul mayor to strongman leader, saying:
“Yesterday’s victim has become today’s tyrant.”
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Özel also criticized the economic fallout from İmamoğlu’s arrest. In late March, the Turkish Central Bank sold off a majority of its foreign reserves in an attempt to prop up the Turkish Lira following major devaluation in the wake of the mayor’s imprisonment.
“They have taken 24,000 TL from every single one of us,” said Özel Saturday.
A letter written by İmamoğlu was read aloud by Abdullah Yaşar, the head of the CHP’s local Yozgat branch.
Written/translated for Medyascope by Leo Kendrick
