March 20 (UPI) — Turkey on Thursday arrested 37 people for social media posts deemed “provocative” following the Wednesday arrest of political opposition leader and Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu.
Turkey’s Interior Ministry said in a statement that the so-called “provocative posts” were allegedly made “within the scope of the crime of “Incitement to Commit a Crime.”
“A total of 261 suspicious account managers, 62 of whom were abroad, were identified as having made these posts,” the ministry said.
“Following the coordinated work of our Cyber Crime Presidency and Security Department, 37 suspects were caught and efforts to catch the other suspects are ongoing.”
The ministry said a total of 18,647,269 posts were made on X. Of those the government determined that 66% were from named accounts and 34% were bot accounts.
The ministry did not provide any examples of the allegedly criminal posts.
“We as a nation must stand against this evil. This is my call to my nation…The day has come to speak out,” a post on Imamoglu’s X account Thursday said.
The post called upon the Turkish judiciary to stand up against the use of the legal system to carry out a crackdown on political opposition.
“You must stand up and take precautions against this handful of colleagues who are ruining the Turkish judiciary, disgracing us to the whole world and destroying our reputation,” the post said. “I trust the Great Turkish Judiciary. You cannot and must not remain silent.”
People opposed to Mayor Imamoglu’s Wednesday arrest as well as the arrests of 106 other people in the crackdown on political opposition say his arrest is a “coup.”
Opposition demonstrations are planned even though the government has banned protests for four days as part of the political crackdown.
Imamoglu’s opposition political party still controls Istanbul’s government even though he is in custody.
In Istanbul, loudspeakers at metro stations played some of Imamoglu’s speeches. One excerpt heard over the speakers said, “I promise you with my honor that I am going to win this fight.”
University students have protested, but so far not in large numbers compared to Istanbul’s 16 million population.
Among the student protesters’ chants are a common one heard in Turkey, “We are not scared, we won’t be silenced, we will not obey.”
According to critics of Erdogan’s government, the controversial arrests in this political crackdown are the most clear-cut democracy violations the government has ever carried out.
The controversy has also impacted Turkey’s already-troubled economy with markets dropping Wednesday on news of Imamoglu’s arrest.
Istanbul economist and consultant Arda Tunca told CNBC, “Turkey has already been in decline, but this is a political free fall. Today is history and a new dimension in Turkey’s breakaway from democracy.”
