A week before the elections in Turkey, the opposition politician Ekrem Imamoglu was attacked during the election campaign and forced to abandon his appearance. The office of Imamoglu, who is Istanbul’s mayor, released footage of the attack in the eastern Turkish city of Erzurum, where the politician was delivering a campaign speech on Sunday. Angry demonstrators hurled stones at his campaign bus, forcing Imamoglu to abandon the performance and leave the scene.
Footage posted online showed police using water cannon to disperse protesters and prevent them from chasing the bus. According to Turkish media reports, seven people were slightly injured. Imamoglu spoke of a provocation and demanded an explanation from the local authorities. The province is controlled by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Islamic conservative AKP party.
The incident highlighted the tense situation in Turkey a week before the first round of the presidential election. Imamoglu supports opposition politician Kemal Kilicdaroglu in his election campaign. If the opposition wins the elections, the popular mayor of Istanbul has the prospect of becoming vice president. The polls indicate a close race between Kilicdaroglu and Erdogan, who has ruled Turkey for 20 years.
