Thousands protest following resignations
Thousands of people took to the streets on Wednesday in protest of the government in İstanbul, Ankara, İzmir, Kocaeli, Eskişehir, Kahramanmaraş, Zonguldak and Samsun after the resignations of three ministers, Economy Minister Zafer Çağlayan, Interior Minister Muammer Güler and Environment and Urban Planning Minister Erdoğan Bayraktar, as a result of allegations of corruption.
A group marching toward the district office of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) in Kadıköy was blocked by police forces who fired gas canisters at the protesters and used water cannons. The group called on the public to pour into the streets, chanting slogans such as “Three ministers resigned, now it's Erdoğan's turn,” “Everywhere is bribery, everywhere is corruption” and “Bye bye Erdoğan.” Some residents of Kadıköy accompanied the protesters' chants by banging pots and pans from the windows of their homes.
Some of the protesters erected barricades in Kadıköy's Bahariye Street, where police forces allegedly fired rubber bullets. It was reported that the police detained 13 protesters later the same night. Other districts of İstanbul such as Beşiktaş, Okmeydanı and İkitelli also saw similar protests.
In the İzmit district of Kocaeli province, a group of about 100 people marched toward the Kocaeli provincial office of the AK Party shouting the slogan “Government resign.” The group dispersed with no intervention from the police.
Meanwhile, some protesters in Eskişehir gathered outside a shopping mall on Üniversite Street, marched and then threw eggs at a branch of Halkbank, whose director general is currently under arrest and accused of fraud after $4.5 million was found in shoe boxes in his house.
A group of lawyers calling themselves the “Independent Lawyers” staged a protest in the southern province of Kahramanmaraş against the recent amendment to the Judiciary Police Regulation, introduced by the government in an overnight move last week and which requires police officers to inform their superiors of all investigations. The amendment came after the revelation of the major police operation on Dec. 17 linked to bribery and graft claims.
Members of the Confederation of Public Sector Trade Unions (KESK) in Samsun left shoe boxes outside of a Halkbank office in a show of protest and issued a press statement demanding that the government resign.
In the northwestern province of Zonguldak, members of the “Democracy Platform,” consisting of some nongovernmental organizations, also staged a protest against the amendment to the Judiciary Police Regulation, the purge of hundreds of police officers carrying out the corruption probe and the recently introduced ban on journalists entering police stations.
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