Mayor of Istanbul dismisses charges against him
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What are the main headlines in this episode?
This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Bernadette Keogh, and in the early hours of Sunday 23rd March, these are our main stories. In Istanbul, protesters take to the streets for the fourth day running following the arrest of the city's mayor, Ekrem Imamoglu, who's appeared in a Turkish court. Pope Francis is being discharged from hospital on Sunday. Lebanese state media say eight people have been killed in two waves of Israeli airstrikes. Also in this podcast, an urgent inquiry is ordered into the power outage that closed Heathrow. The airport's chief executive has defended the response.
I'm proud of what the people did to get us out of the situation. Don't forget the situation was not created at Heathrow Airport. It was created outside the airport and we had to deal with the consequences. And I still believe that one day the Taliban will allow schools and universities to reopen and I will realise my dreams of becoming a heart surgeon.
Why are there protests in Istanbul?
The girls of Afghanistan still denied education, clinging on to their dreams. We begin in Turkey. Turkey. where thousands of demonstrators have taken to the streets in cities across the country for the fourth day running following the arrest of Istanbul's mayor, Ekrem İmamoğlu, who's now in court. He was arrested on Wednesday and detained on charges of corruption and aiding terrorist groups, allegations that he's dismissed as immoral and baseless. It came days before he was due to be announced as a candidate for the 2028 presidential election. In a televised statement, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemned the protests.
They attempted to provoke our nation over this corruption operation. They have been doing everything they can for four days to disturb the peace of the nation and polarize our people. From insulting anyone they encounter to attacking our police officers who are only doing their jobs, from intimidating our members of the judiciary who are investing corruption reports to suppressing the national will with street terrorism, they have it all. They're trying every way to create an atmosphere of tension and chaos in our cities, especially in Istanbul.
Our correspondent Emily Wither is in Istanbul.
The protests definitely appear to be building and they also appear to be becoming more violent with the police cracking down quite hard. We were at a protest earlier outside the Istanbul building. municipality building, which is Imamoglu's office. His staff have been sleeping there since Wednesday because they don't want to leave the building empty in case the government tries to take it over. Before the protests had even really begun, the air was thick with tear gas. And then later into the evening, pepper spray was used. We also saw a very violent crackdown in in Ankara, the capital, and also in the coastal city of Izmir where police violently broke up demonstrations and fired water cannons at the crowd.
Also in Istanbul, there is this court hearing that's happening now with Imamoglu and there were supporters of Imamoglu that gathered outside the court and they also clashed with police. One thing I noticed this evening was that when these protests first broke out on Wednesday, it was mostly students on the streets. But tonight, it really felt like a mix of ages. And one thing that was interesting that all the protesters said to us is that they weren't necessarily on the streets because they support the opposition party, the CHP, that Ememoli belongs to, but that they were on the streets because they were fighting for the country's democracy, for the future of Turkey.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What are the main headlines in this episode?
0:38–1:43
2
Why are there protests in Istanbul?
1:43–6:10
3
What is the status of Pope Francis's health?
6:10–8:28
4
What caused the power outage at Heathrow Airport?
8:28–10:47
5
What is happening with Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon?
10:47–16:04
6
Why are girls unable to attend school in Afghanistan?
16:04–31:59
Speakers
13 identifiedMore from Global News Podcast
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