Erdogan says protests in Türkiye became ‘movement of violence’

Despite the ban imposed on home meetings in many cities, the mostly peaceful demonstrations against the government continued on the sixth consecutive night on Monday, with the participation of hundreds of thousands of people and with CHP leader Ozgur Ozel, repeating the appeal for protests across the country to continue.

Speaking after a meeting of the Ancara, Erdogan said the CHP should stop “provoking” citizens.

“As a nation, we followed with surprise the events that emerged after the appeal of the main opposition leader to go to the streets after a corruption operation in Istanbul became a movement of violence,” said the 71 -year -old president.

“The main opposition is responsible for our (injured) police officers, the broken windows of our shopkeepers and the damaged public property. They will be held responsible for all this, politically in parliament and legally by the judiciary.”

Earlier, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya accused some protesters of “terrorizing” the streets and threatening national security. He said 1,133 people had been arrested during the five days of protests and that 123 police officers had been injured.

A CHP delegation met with the governor of Istanbul to discuss police repression against protesters. The party chief in Istanbul, Ozgur Celik, said the police intervention on Sunday night was the most violent so far, with many hospitalized people.