The AKP-controlled central municipality of Erzurum province (Erzurum Buyuksehir Belediyesi) attempted to prevent mayor of Istanbul Ekrem Imamoglu from holding a pro-Kilicdaroglu rally in Havuzbasi Square by filling the square with municipal buses.
Imamoglu tweeted in response: “They are trying to keep me from my six o’clock meeting with my countrymen in Erzurum.
Mayor Sekmen, you will carry the blotch of this transgression on your soul until you die.“
Participants at Imamoglu’s rally were stoned by a group of men gathered beside Havuzbasi Square. 10-15 people were injured, and one was admitted to hospital.
Imamoglu called on policemen stationed in the square for help, but they did not intervene. Those leaving the square were pelted with more stones and verbally assaulted. They responded by waving Turkish flags above their heads and chanting, “Happy is the one who calls himself a Turk!“ (Ne mutlu Turkum diyene!) and “We are the soldiers of Mustafa Kemal!“ (Mustafa Kemal’in askerleriyiz!)
Mustafa Kemal Ataturk is the founder of the Turkish Republic, as well as of the Republican People’s Party (CHP). He is beloved among many Turks for his recovery of Turkish land in the War of Independence after the fall and partitioning of the Ottoman Empire in World War I, and for his choice to establish a secular democracy which, among other things, granted women civil and political rights equal to men.
People continued to roam the streets of Erzurum into the night, chanting in alignment with the stone-throwers. Police did not interfere with their movements.
It has been revealed that the AKP-controlled municipality in the Aziziye region of Erzurum province forced its employees to attend Erdogan’s Aziziye rally on May 5. The municipality elected group chiefs to observe attendance, while others had to post photographs from the event to a special WhatsApp group to prove they had gone.
At his Great Istanbul Rally (Büyük İstanbul Mitingi), Erdogan displayed a Kilicdaroglu campaign video spliced with images of alleged PKK leader Murat Karayilan. The video implies that Kilicdaroglu is in explicit cooperation with the PKK, a Kurdish terrorist organization, and is using this affiliation to further his campaigning efforts.
Kilicdaroglu had warned at a rally in Kayseri province on April 29 that “ten days before the election [on May 14], they will commit underhanded acts against me.“ CHP sources had specified afterwards that these acts would consist of some manipulation or fabrication of Kilicdaroglu’s voice and image.
Construction on the new Diyarbakir City Hospital is being met with intense protest from local residents because the building’s foundation is being opened using dynamite. Since efforts to resolve the matter through official channels have failed, people are gathering in front of the construction site to demand the explosions cease.
A representative for the protest stated: “Dynamite is being used to break rocks in the foundation of the new hospital. This primitive practice is meant solely to save on time and money and is harming the neighborhood and the environment. It is a method explicitly forbidden in urban zones, and it is making us relive the trauma of the earthquake… the deafening sound makes us and our children run out to the street, as if for our lives.“
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