More than 340 people were arrested following Turkiye’s biggest street protests in over a decade sparked by the detention of Istanbul’s powerful opposition mayor, a minister said Saturday. Hundreds of thousands of people hit the streets across the country late Friday, sparking clashes with riot police in Turkey’s three largest cities: Istanbul, the capital Ankara and the western coastal city of Izmir. Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said “343 suspects were caught in the protests that took place in Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, Adana, Antalya, Canakkale, Eskisehir, Konya and Edirne,” warning that those who sought to sow “chaos and provocation.. will definitely not be tolerated!”
