WORLD NEWS | Turkish opposition rally disrupted by violence

ISTANBUL, May 8 (AP) — More than a dozen people have been detained over the weekend over violence at an opposition election rally in the eastern Turkish city of Erzurum, the country’s justice minister said Monday.

About 200 protesters began throwing stones as Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) spoke from a campaign bus on Sunday afternoon.

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Imamoglu is running on behalf of CHP leader and presidential candidate Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the main opponent of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, just days before the May 14 presidential and parliamentary elections.

He insisted that police and pro-Erdogan officials in Erzurum allowed the attacks to continue. “Citizens are injured here, and you police are just standing by,” Imamoglu can be heard saying in a video of the incident. “Governor of Erzurum, Mayor of Erzurum, I will initiate criminal proceedings against you.”

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Video later showed Imamoglu being led inside by his entourage as the bus drove away before police dispersed the group with water cannon. Seven people were injured in the incident, according to Erzurum Governor Okememis.

Speaking on local news channel A Haber on Monday morning, Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag announced that the investigation was ongoing and 13 people had been detained so far.

Kilicdaroglu posted a video on social media after Sunday’s incident in which he accused the rioters of being a “militarist coalition” trying to “scare people away from the ballot box”.

Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu later said on television that the incident was “dramatic”.

“They provoke an incident like this, and then they claim they did this to us, they did that to us … They put up a speech designed to incite, to piss off a crowd.”

The game is currently close. If Erdogan wins, it will be his third consecutive presidential term. However, opinion polls show Kilicdaroglu with a slight lead. (Associated Press)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)