CIVICUS discusses ongoing protests in Turkey with lawyer Eren Keskin, chair of the Human Rights Association (IHD). One of Turkey’s oldest and largest human rights civil society organisations (CSO), IHD documents human rights violations and campaigns for the protection of human rights and civic freedoms.
The recent arrest of Ekrem İmamoğlu, Istanbul’s mayor and the opposition’s presidential candidate for the next general election, triggered the biggest wave of protests Turkey has seen since the 2013 Gezi Park protests. Starting in Istanbul and quickly spreading to dozens of cities, the protests have brought together an unprecedented coalition of students, workers, opposition politicians and first-time protesters. The government’s heavy-handed response has intensified public outrage.
