00:00Why are protests erupting in Turkey?
00:07Tens of thousands of protesters have been taking part in the biggest demonstrations
00:11to be seen in Turkey in over a decade.
00:14They were sparked by the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, President Erdogan's
00:20fiercest political rival, just days before he was nominated as the presidential nominee
00:26of the opposition Republican People's Party or CHP.
00:30If convicted for the corruption charges levelled against him, Imamoglu will not be able to
00:35run in the 2028 presidential ballot.
00:38His university diploma, a prerequisite for running for office in Turkey, has also been
00:44nullified.
00:45The events are widely perceived as an attempt to erase Erdogan's adversaries and a sharp
00:50turn towards full autocracy.
00:53Protests have defied a four-day government ban to take to the streets.
00:57This video, shared by online media T24, shows riot police restraining a protester and some
01:03officers are not wearing numbered helmets that allowed them to be identified, something
01:08human rights groups have long condemned for facilitating police impunity.
01:13The events have also triggered a wave of online misinformation.
01:17This widely circulating video claims to show a demonstration against Imamoglu's arrest,
01:23but in fact shows crowds gathering for the Pope's visit to East Timor last September.
01:28Another widely shared video claims to show the chairman of Imamoglu's CHP party, Özgür
01:33Özel, rallying a crowd of protesters to clash with the police.
01:39We verified Özel's speech and found it had been deceptively cut to take his words out
01:44of context.
01:45He in fact called on the crowds to use common sense and adopt just means in the fight for
01:52justice.
