Protesters arrested over violence, throwing stones during Turkish opposition rally

More than a dozen people have been arrested in Turkey over violence against the mayor of Istanbul and opposition supporters at an election rally, according to the justice minister, as tensions rise ahead of the next week's elections.

Turkey’s Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag, on Monday, said that several people were detained after main opposition bloc Nation Alliance’s vice presidential candidate, Ekrem Imamoglu, and his supporters were pelted with stones during a rally in a nationalist and conservative stronghold in the eastern city of Erzurum on May 7.

Imamoglu was campaigning on top of his campaign bus on behalf of the CHP leader and presidential candidate Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the main opponent to President Erdogan.

He was forced to cut his rally short when stones were thrown at him. He later returned to the inside of his bus, where a video showed the vehicle’s windows shattered by the stones.

Several people were injured during the incident, according to Erzurum Governor, Okay Memis. Turkey’s private Demiroren News Agency (DHA) reported that more than 15 people were wounded in the attack. Citing police sources, DHA said 15 people were detained after the attack.

Imamoglu maintained that police and pro-Erdogan officials in Erzurum allowed the attack to go ahead. “Police officers! There are citizens here who are injured, and you police are just standing by,” Imamoglu is heard saying in footage of the incident.

He also said he would file a criminal complaint against the governor of the conservative stronghold city and the police chief, accusing them of allowing the violence.

The attack on Imamoglu further elevated tensions in the country, which is in its final stretch, ahead of the crucial May 14 presidential and parliamentary elections to determine whether Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will extend his rule for another term.

On the other side of the ledger, Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu blamed the attack on Imamoglu on Sunday, arguing that he provoked the disturbance by holding the rally without an official permit. “Nationalist vein in that city is at the highest level,” he told pro-government Ulke TV.

Kilicdaroglu posted a video on social media following Sunday’s incident in which he accused the people responsible of being a “militarist coalition” who seeks to “scare people away from the ballot box.”

ME