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Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoglu joined several hundred demonstrators late on Wednesday to protest the arrest of an elected official accused of membership of the banned PKK Kurdish group.
The demonstrators gathered in front of the justice palace in the megapolis to denounce the arrest of Ahmet Ozer, the mayor of Esenyurt, a city in the Istanbul region.
According to the state agency Anadolu, Ozer was detained earlier on Wednesday and charged with belonging to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
The PKK, which has waged an on-off insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984 that has killed thousands, is considered as a terror group by Turkey and its Western allies.
Ozer’s arrest was announced by his party, the opposition CHP, on social media, but has not been officially confirmed.
Writing on X, the CHP denounced the “abstract allegations based on a book written (by Ozer) years ago” and promised to “react in the strongest possible manner.”
The demonstrators also denounced the replacement of Ozer as mayor and called for more protests to be held on Thursday.
Ozer is a university professor who was elected during municipal elections in March that saw opposition candidates capture the helms of numerous cities and towns, including Istanbul.
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