Hundreds of thousands are calling for the biggest demo to date: “Tayyip, steps back!”

All of them are there: the students anyway, but also the unions, the communists and the right -wing extremists who whitewashed the flag of the “gray wolves” from the roof of a parked bus. There are even many pensioners here, occasionally they have to be looked after on the shadowless place; The heat forced her on her knees.

“It is inspiring,” says a young man, “that so many different people have the same goal”.

Police fight “street terrorists” and media

Erdoğan called the demonstrators “street terrorist”. It is a typical Erdoğan designation with which he finally on a level with the largest mass demonstrations so far twelve years ago in Istanbuler Gezi-Park provides: his participant had once disparaged as “sampling”.

The BBC journalist received on Thursday Mark Lowen In his hotel visit from the police, it was deported for his reporting. The next day it got the Swedish colleagues And Medinhe is still in custody.

Protests organized by students failed miserably

At the same time, the police managed to frighten many demonstrators. A nationwide ban on assembly still applies, and there is an extremely large number of police officers in Istanbul.

They patrol in all public places and even use chartered coaches that cannot be recognized as police vehicles. On social media, arrested demonstrators of physical and even sexual assault when interrogated by the police tell.

In view of this, the concern is that the mass protests could soon abbow. In particular, the CHP is responsible for this: After tens of thousands in front of the town hall had demonstrated for a week, the party declared the protests there on Tuesday. The city administration must be able to pursue their normal work again, according to the explanation.

With this, the students suddenly had to take over the organization – and failed dramatically: On Wednesday and Thursday, the courier observed up close, as several hundred demonstrators each circled and arrested by a wall of uniforms, plastic shields and batons.

City against the state: Who has the longer breath?

It is a stage for the Turkish state in his wearing struggle against the government of his largest city. “The crucial question now is: who has the longer breath?” Says political scientist Esen. The government could not maintain this police pressure forever – “that is too expensive”.

If the opposition succeeded “mobilizing the population over the next three to six months, it would look bad for Erdoğan. Then it would be possible that this regime breaks.”

The hope that this can succeed for the first time in Maltepe for days. The CHP officially registered the event as a campaign opening for the presidential election in 2028, so it does not fall under the ban on meeting.

So it should go on weekly, even if the top candidate, Ekrem İmamoğlu, is still in prison. On Saturday he turned to the people in a letter, his wife Dilek reads him: “I’m not afraid because the nation is united. It is united against the oppressor.”