The recent arrest of Istanbul’s Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu and main rival of President Erdoğan has sparked the largest protests in Turkey in a decade, with over 1,100 people detained in demonstrations across the country.

The Istanbul mayor and 106 other municipal officials and politicians were detained on March 19 for what Human Rights Watch called a politically motivated move to stifle lawful political activities.

‘By forcing Imamoglu out of politics, the government has crossed the line that separates Turkey’s competitive authoritarian regime from a full, Russian-style autocracy in which the president handpicks his opponents and elections are purely for show,’ Gonul Tol, Director of Turkish Program at the Middle East Institute, told Fox News Digital.

A spokesperson from Turkey’s embassy in Washington, D.C., told Fox News Digital that Turkey’s Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said 1,133 people have been detained since the arrest of the mayor, and around 123 police officers have been injured since the start of protests. Yerlikaya also alleged that weapons were seized during the protests and the individuals detained were found to have ties to different terrorist organizations and prior criminal records.

Some experts believe the move was orchestrated by Erdoğan to sideline the opposition, silence political dissent and increase his own power.

‘This is a dark time for democracy in Turkey, with such a blatantly lawless move to weaponize the justice system to cancel the democratic process,’ Hugh Williamson, Europe and Central Asia Director at Human Rights Watch, told Fox News Digital in a statement.

In an address to celebrate the festival of Nowruz on Friday, Erdoğan said Turkey was not a country that was found on the street and will not submit to street terrorism.

‘We will not allow public order to be damaged. We will not give in to vandalism or street terrorism,’ Erdoğan said, according to Reuters.

The opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) held a symbolic primary vote over the weekend and nominated İmamoğlu to be the party’s candidate for president to face Erdoğan in the 2028 elections.

Despite the increased repression and threats to their own safety and security, the Turkish opposition does not yet seem to be backing down.

‘We, as the main opposition party that emerged as the first party in the last local elections in March 2024, will stand firm and resist any kind of oppression by the government,’ İlhan Uzgel, CHP Deputy Chairman for Foreign Policy, told Fox News Digital.

Uzgel said Erdoğan seems frightened of losing power, and is urging opposition supporters to take to the streets to defend democracy, challenge lawlessness, and challenge the Erdoğan government’s abuse of power.  

‘We are happy to see that our people take to the streets despite the occasional use of force by the riot police, and demonstrate peacefully, which is a constitutional right,’ he added.

Imamoglu, who is presently jailed and is awaiting trial on corruption charges, was viewed as the most serious challenger to the decades-long rule of Erdoğan. His detention will likely keep him out of the political opposition for the foreseeable future, dealing a huge blow to Turkey’s pro-democracy movement. 

Tol of the Middle East Institute said Erdoğan is banking on people’s anger dissipating over time and that the mass protests will eventually die down. The election is not scheduled until 2028, and people, Erdoğan hopes, will most likely forget and move on.

The danger, according to Tol, is that street protests in the Middle East and elsewhere tend to go in many different directions, and there is no telling how long the public anger over the arrests will last and how much more popular support the movement will gain.

İmamoğlu, member of the secular Republican People’s Party (CHP), was elected mayor of Istanbul in 2019 and re-elected in 2023. In both elections, he defeated Erdoğan-backed opponents. 

Turkey’s problems come at a time when President Trump is reportedly considering lifting sanctions on the NATO member and resuming the sale of F-35 fighter jets following a recent phone call with Erdoğan.

Reuters contributed to this article.

President Donald Trump’s Cabinet outlined billions of dollars in contracts it says it has canceled since he took office, including a ‘$300,000 contract educating on food justice for queer and transgender farmers in San Francisco’ and $830 million on surveys described as looking like ‘anyone’s child in junior high could have put together.’ 

The contracts, which Trump said represented ‘fraud,’ are being canceled as Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) are trying to eliminate wasteful spending by the federal government. 

‘Even at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, we canceled a $300,000 contract educating on food justice for queer and transgender farmers in San Francisco. A similar contract we canceled in New York, again educating transgender and queer farmers on food justice and food equality. I’m not even sure what that means, but apparently the last administration wanted to put out taxpayer dollars towards that,’ Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins told Trump. 

‘We canceled a $600,000 contract out of Louisiana that was studying the menstrual cycles of transgender men. We canceled another contract out of a university in the middle of the country that focused on getting more diversity, equity and inclusion into our pest management industry,’ she continued. ‘Again, these are nonsensical, it makes zero sense to use taxpayer dollars to fund these. I know these are just a few examples of the hundreds and hundreds we have found.’ 

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum told Trump that ‘There is a federal consulting group which was a group inside of Interior, but it was managing contracts for many different agencies that flowed through here’ and ‘one of those contracts was to do surveys of individuals, $830 million for surveys.’ 

‘And so part of the question was ‘hey could we actually see the surveys?’ and then the surveys came back and it was, the survey was like 8.5 by 11 sheet of paper with ten questions that anyone’s child in junior high could have put together, or AI could have done for free,’ Burgum said during the Cabinet meeting. ‘$830 million, so that is one that we stopped and that contract was going out after you were inaugurated, sir.’ 

‘It’s fraud,’ Trump responded. ‘But we’ve had many fraudulent contracts that were caught by the work that Elon and his people are doing and working with our people. It’s been brought to light. The fraud, not just waste and abuse. The fraud has been incredible.’ 

An X account linked to the White House said Burgum announced $830 million in savings by ‘cutting contracts for useless surveys.’ 

‘The EPA has now canceled over $22 billion worth of contracts – $2 billion going to this NGO that Stacey Abrams was tied to. They received only $100 in 2023 and then the Biden administration gave them $2 billion,’ Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin also said. ‘The director of the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund saw his former employer get $5 billion dollars. So $20 billion went to just eight NGOs.’ 

‘The partnership with DOGE and Elon Musk has been incredible at EPA. Their team is very talented, we wouldn’t have been able to do it without them and of course this mandate from President Trump to make sure that we identify every last penny, whether we are saving $50,000, five million dollars or $22 billion dollars we will not rest until every last penny is saved. Thank you, Mr. President for the opportunity to do this for the American public,’ Zeldin added. 

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi issued a stern warning to those engaged in government fraud at the most recent Cabinet meeting on Monday.

Speaking with President Donald Trump present at the meeting, Bondi thanked Tesla CEO Elon Musk for uncovering ‘fraud, waste and abuse’ through the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) initiative.

‘A lot of waste and abuse, but there is a tremendous amount of fraud,’ Bondi began. ‘And, Elon, thank you for your partnership. Thank you for your team. You have uncovered so much fraud in our government.’

Bondi then revealed that an internal task force is involved with bringing those accused of fraud to justice.

‘We will prosecute you,’ the attorney general warned. ‘We have an internal task force now working with every agency sitting here at this table. And if you’ve committed fraud, we’re coming after you. Thank you, Elon.’

Bondi also mentioned that, under Trump’s directive, the Department of Justice (DOJ) will begin seeking the death penalty for those convicted of violent crimes.

‘All of these horrible violent criminals that you’re hearing about around the country, they will face the death penalty federally within our country,’ Bondi said. ‘And the drug dealers need to get out of here, because we are coming after you. We’re going to have 94 great U.S. attorneys around this country, and everyone will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.’

The topic of government fraud was mentioned throughout the meeting, with Musk claiming that he found $330 million worth of waste within the Small Business Administration (SBA).

‘[We found] a case of fraud and waste with the Small Business Administration, where they were handing out $330 million worth of loans to people under the age of 11,’ Musk said. ‘I think the youngest was a nine month year [sic] old who got a $100,000 loan.’

‘That’s a very precocious baby we’re talking about here,’ he joked.

Trump expressed appreciation to both Musk and the rest of the Cabinet for uncovering waste and fraud.

‘We’ve had many fraudulent contracts that were caught by the work that Elon and his people are doing,’ the president said. ‘And working with our people, it’s been brought to light. The fraud, not just waste and abuse, the fraud has been incredible.’

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is expected to privately meet with Republican members of the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, two people familiar with the plans told Fox News Digital.

The timing or reason for the meeting is not immediately clear, but it comes as Republicans in Congress map out how to respond to what they see as ‘activist’ judges blocking President Donald Trump’s agenda.

The committee is currently scheduled to mark up several pieces of legislation, unrelated to the judicial standoff, on Tuesday morning at 10 a.m. ET. Johnson is scheduled to hold his weekly press conference at that time.

It comes as the Trump administration has faced more than a dozen injunctions from various district court judges across the country on a range of policy decisions.

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., announced on X Monday that lawmakers would be voting on a bill next week led by Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., to limit U.S. district court judges’ ability to hand down nationwide injunctions.

Fox News Digital was told last week that Trump himself expressed interest in the bill.

Meanwhile, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, is expected to hold a hearing on the issue of activist judges early next week.

Several conservative lawmakers have also introduced or threatened resolutions to impeach specific judges blocking Trump’s agenda.

Johnson has been known to meet with various factions of the House GOP when trying to push key pieces of legislation, particularly when there are differing opinions on what to do, to ensure all lawmakers who want to express a viewpoint are heard.

But House GOP leaders have also been privately wary of getting behind any of the calls for impeachment, worried it would not be the most effective approach.

Trump, however, has previously signaled interest in impeaching U.S. district court Judge James Boasberg after he issued an emergency order blocking the administration’s deportation of suspected Tren de Aragua gang members under the Alien Enemies Act.

Rep. Brandon Gill, R-Texas, introduced a resolution to impeach Boasberg for ‘abuse of power’ last week. The legislation gained three new supporters on Monday and now has 19 total co-sponsors.

Some House Republicans expressed hesitation at the idea when asked by Fox News Digital on Monday night, however.

‘We shouldn’t lower the standard for impeachment, but we should – we meaning Congress – should provide a remedy for district court judges who totally overreach,’ Rep. Nick LaLota, R-N.Y., said.

Another House Republican who declined to be named said they were ‘totally opposed’ to impeachment.

‘That’s what the appeals process is for,’ they said.

Rep. Marlin Stutzman, R-Ind., contended that the impeachment resolutions sent a necessary message. 

‘The reason I sponsored Gill’s efforts is just – if we don’t say anything, the judges are going to be like, ‘Oh, we can do whatever we want.’ So they need to know that we are watching and that there’s a group of us that, if that’s what it takes, we would support that,’ Stutzman said.

Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., said Issa’s bill was a ‘start’ but said the House Freedom Caucus would have discussions about whether the group wanted to push for impeachment.

Fox News Digital reached out to Johnson’s office and the House Judiciary Committee for comment but did not immediately hear back.