Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Özgür Özel called on Turkish citizens to organise an economic boycott on Wednesday, Turkish media reported.
Özel published the call for a boycott against celebrities and national brands that did not support protests following the arrest of former Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu for corruption on his X social media page.
In the publication, he actually called on citizens to “paralyse the economy.”
“The 301 students who were on the front lines resisting the 19 March coup and defending their future were illegally arrested and will meet the holiday away from their families. I wholeheartedly support the economic boycott launched by the youth to protest against this injustice inflicted on students, their mothers, fathers and brothers. I urge everyone to join the boycott and use their power of consumption. The people are the true masters of the state. The handful of conspirators who have pitted the state against the people will lose. The people will win,” Ozgur Özel stated.
“What is halal for Tayyip Erdogan cannot be haram for the nation. Boycott is a democratic right. It was Erdogan himself who initiated the media boycott in 2008,” Özgür Özel wrote on his social media.
At the same time, the Istanbul Prosecutor General’s Office launched an investigation because of the opposition’s calls for a boycott of businesses.
“The Istanbul General Prosecutor’s Office has launched an official investigation into calls for boycott in the media and social networks aimed at preventing a certain part of the population from engaging in economic activities. An investigation has also been launched against the persons who disseminate these calls,” the general prosecutor’s office said.
The investigation is carried out on charges of “hatred and discrimination, incitement of the public to hatred and hostility.”
The mayor of Istanbul and his associates were detained on March 19. Initially it was planned that they would be in police custody for four days. He was detained on charges of involvement in corruption and bribery. İmamoğlu was later arrested and relieved of his position as mayor of Istanbul. Against the backdrop of the detentions, mass protests broke out across Turkey, despite the authorities’ ban on demonstrations. Later, İmamoğlu’s supporters officially elected him as the CHP’s presidential candidate.
