Turks say they will carry on with protests as Erdogan says 'show' will end
According to REUTERS, anti-government protesters in Turkey said they planned to keep up a campaign of demonstrations triggered by the jailing of Istanbul's mayor - the biggest such opposition action in a decade - despite mass arrests and clashes with police.
President Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday that what he dismissed as their "show" will fizzle out.
But since the arrest of Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu last week, hundreds of thousands of people have gathered in squares, streets and university campuses nationwide each evening chanting anti-Erdogan slogans and calling not only for Imamoglu's release but also for justice and rights.
Protesters, opposition parties, European leaders and rights groups have called the detention of Imamoglu, Erdogan's main rival, a politicised and anti-democratic move.
The gatherings are banned but have carried on nonetheless, almost entirely peacefully until the late hours when police have used clubs and pepper spray in response to projectiles and arrested more than 1,400 people.
"I'll try to come as much as I can because the government has left us no justice," said one university student at Istanbul's Sarachanepark.
"I was scared when I first came, thinking we might get arrested. But I'm not scared now," she said.
At the main nightly protest at the park between city hall and a towering Roman aqueduct, most people have cheered speeches by opposition leaders while others, some 200 metres (650 feet) away, have chanted and faced off with hundreds of white-helmeted riot police.
Other people also told Reuters they expect to continue daily protests even as the main opposition Republic People's Party (CHP) has said that Tuesday will mark the last day of planned events at Sarachane.
The continued protests pose a potential bind for Erdogan, who has called them "street terrorism". He has tolerated little criticism from the streets since authorities violently shut down the anti-government Gezi Park protests in 2013.
After a cabinet meeting in Ankara on Monday, the president accused the CHP of provoking citizens and predicted they would feel ashamed for the "evil" done to the country once their "show" fades away.
The government has rejected claims of political influence and says the judiciary is independent.
The hitherto more reserved CHP has in recent days repeatedly urged people out to the streets, echoing a call on Sunday by Imamoglu before he was jailed pending a trial on corruption charges that he denies.
