Agency :
Protests against the detention of Istanbul’s mayor grew on Friday and turned increasingly tense, Turkey’s biggest show of civil disobedience in more than a decade after President Tayyip Erdogan warned it would not be tolerated.
Tens of thousands of Turks have taken to the streets in mostly peaceful demonstrations since Wednesday, when Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu was detained and charged.
He is Erdogan’s main political rival who leads him in some opinion polls, reports Reuters.
The mayor’s Republican People’s Party (CHP), the main opposition, condemned the move as politically motivated and urged supporters to demonstrate lawfully.
“We will not accept the disruption of public order,” Erdogan, 71, told an audience in Istanbul. “Just as we have never yielded to street terrorism, we will not surrender to vandalism.”
