Turkey's protests over the arrest of an Erdogan rival take a new angle: Boycott shopping

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Turkey's protests over the arrest of an Erdogan rival take a new angle: Boycott shopping

2025-04-02 22:19 Last Updated At：22:31

ISTANBUL (AP) — Protests that erupted across Turkey following the arrest of Istanbul’s opposition mayor — the main challenger to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan — took a new direction Wednesday with calls for a one-day shopping boycott.

The student groups behind the call also urged businesses to close Wednesday.

Large-scale anti-government protests began last month after the jailing of Ekrem Imamoglu, who faces corruption and terrorism charges that observers say are politically motivated. The government insists the judiciary is independent and free of political interference.

Imamoglu's party supported the call for a boycott.

“I invite everyone to join this boycott and use their power that comes from consumption,” said Ozgur Ozel, leader of the Republican People’s Party, or CHP, on social media.

Ozel had called for people to shun companies he said supported the government, particularly media firms that did not air images of protests that saw hundreds of thousands flood streets to call for Imamoglu’s release and an end to democratic backsliding.

The students' boycott call sparked a quick response from the government.

Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya called it “sabotage” and a “coup attempt against our economy,” while Trade Minister Omer Bolat said companies that suffer financial losses would be able to file a claim for compensation against those calling for the boycott.

Bolat posted images of himself shopping on social media, alongside comments saying it was a “day of protecting the national economy.”

The head of Turkey’s broadcasting authority announced possible action against news channels that publicized the boycott. Last week, the authority issued a 10-day broadcasting ban for one opposition channel, as well as fines and program suspensions to others.

The Istanbul Chief Prosecutor’s Office on Tuesday launched a criminal investigation into the opposition’s boycott calls.

Rifat Hisarciklioglu, president of the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey, said it was wrong to target companies, which he said should be kept out of political discussions.

Meanwhile, the head of an events company who drew the anger of protesters by calling them “traitors” announced it was cancelling concerts, including those by British artists Robbie Williams and Muse as well as Norwegian singer Ane Brun that had been scheduled for later this year.

Imamoglu, in a social media post from the prison where he has been held since March 23, asserted that European politicians had started to cut ties with Turkey.

The European Commission canceled its participation in the Antalya Diplomacy Forum, while European Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos said she has cancelled a meeting with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan

While in prison, Imamoglu has been confirmed as the CHP’s presidential candidate in an election currently scheduled for 2028 but likely to take place earlier.

According to the independent ANKA News Agency, some 2,000 people have been detained since Imamoglu was arrested on March 19, with 316 jailed pending trial. Most face charges relating to participating in protests.

Lawyers for imprisoned protesters asserted Wednesday their clients had been beaten by police, deprived of food and water, handcuffed for prolonged periods and denied access to lawyers and families.

The Istanbul-based Lawyer’s Voice Initiative said most students suffered bruises while one had “numbness in his arm due to physical violence and a female student had broken ribs.”

Turkey's government has not responded to the claims.

A week after catastrophic earthquake, focus turns to a growing humanitarian crisis in Myanmar

2025-04-04 16:18 Last Updated At：16:22

BANGKOK (AP) — Search teams pulled more bodies from the ruins of buildings on Friday, a week after a massive earthquake rocked Myanmar killing more than 3,100 people, as the focus turns toward the urgent humanitarian needs in a country that was already devastated by civil war.

United Nations humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher, who is also the emergency relief coordinator, was to arrive Friday in an effort to spur action following the quake. Ahead of his visit, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appealed to the international community to immediately step up funding for quake victims “to match the scale of this crisis,” and he urged unimpeded access to reach those in need.

“The earthquake has supercharged the suffering with the monsoon season just around the corner,” he said Thursday.

Myanmar authorities said Thursday that 3,145 people had been killed, with another 4,589 people injured and 221 missing, and did not immediately update the figures on Friday.

Britain, which had already given $13 million to purchase emergency items like food, water and shelter, pledged an additional $6.5 million in funds to match an appeal from Myanmar's Disasters Emergency Committee, according to the U.K. Embassy in Yangon.

Many international search and rescue teams were also on the scene, and eight medical crews from China, Thailand, Japan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, the Philippines, Indonesia and Russia were operating in Naypyitaw, according to Myanmar's military-run government. Another five teams from India, Russia, Laos and Nepal and Singapore were helping in the Mandalay region, while teams from Russia, Malaysia and the ASEAN bloc of nations were assisting in the Sagaing region.

The Trump administration has pledged $2 million in emergency aid and sent a three-person team to assess how best to respond given drastic cuts to U.S. foreign assistance.

On Friday, five bodies were recovered from the rubble in the capital Naypyitaw and the second-largest city of Mandalay, near the epicenter of the 7.7 magnitude earthquake March 28, authorities said. The last reported rescue came Wednesday, some 125 hours after the quake struck, when a man was saved from the wreckage of a hotel in Mandalay.

The quake also shook neighboring Thailand, bringing down a high-rise under construction in Bangkok, where recovery work continued Friday. Overall, 22 people have been found dead and 35 injured in Bangkok, primarily from the construction site.

Myanmar’s military seized power in 2021 from the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi, sparking what has turned into a civil war.

The quake worsened an already dire humanitarian crisis, with more than 3 million people displaced from their homes and nearly 20 million in need even before it hit, according to the United Nations.

As concerns grew that ongoing fighting could hamper humanitarian aid efforts, the military declared a temporary ceasefire Wednesday, through April 22. The announcement followed unilateral temporary ceasefires announced by armed resistance groups opposed to military rule.

On Thursday, however, there were renewed airstrikes in Kayah state, also known as Karenni, in eastern Myanmar, according to witnesses.

The military has said that it would still take “necessary” measures against resistance groups, if they use the ceasefire to regroup, train or launch attacks, and the groups have said they reserved the right to defend themselves.

Associated Press Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.