Türkiye’s opposition, galvanised by widescale protests over the jailing of Istanbul’s mayor, is hoping to keep the momentum going in part by calling for a boycott of TV stations and businesses it says are “ignoring the moment”.
Türkiye has been rocked by the largest street protests in more than a decade following the arrest and then, on Sunday, the jailing of Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, widely seen as President Tayyip Erdogan’s most formidable political rival, pending trial on corruption charges that he strongly denies.
Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the mayor’s Republican People’s Party (CHP), stood atop a bus before hundreds of thousands of supporters in Istanbul late on Sunday and urged people to boycott entities he said were profiting from them while supporting the government.
The vast majority of Turkish mainstream media is seen as pro-government and the big channels have shown little footage of the nationwide demonstrations.
“We are taking note of every television channel that ignores this moment,” Ozel said, without naming any.
Ozel also accused advertisers on the channels of catering to opposition voters while “serving (Erdogan’s) palace”, and vowed to soon name them alongside the targeted media owners.
“This is not just about not watching their channels – whoever buys their products is complicit,” he said.
Sunday’s court decision to remove Imamoglu from office and to jail him pending trial has inflamed the protesters, who see the moves as politically motivated and anti-democratic, charges the government denies.
The jailing caps a months-long legal crackdown on opposition figures and the removal of other elected officials from office, in what critics say is a government attempt to hurt their election prospects.
Turkish markets, rattled by the unrest, plunged last week, though stocks recovered some ground yesterday after the country’s capital markets board banned short selling.
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