Thousands of secular Turks stage rally
Ap, Izmir
At least 100,000 secular Turks demonstrated in Turkey's third-largest city on Sunday, keeping up pressure on the Islamic-rooted government that they fear is working to raise the influence of religion on society. Police deployed thousands of officers, a day after a bomb at an Izmir market killed one person and injured 14 others. There was no claim of responsibility for the attack, nor evidence that it was linked to the demonstration. Izmir is a port city on the Aegean coast that is a bastion of secularism, and Islamic parties fare poorly there. The rally follows similar demonstrations by hundreds of thousands in Ankara and Istanbul last month. The rallies were staged to pressure Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government, which nominated a presidential candidate deemed to be Islamist.
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Turkish protesters hold up their national flags during a massive secular rally in the western Turkish city of Izmir yesterday. A bomb ripped through a marketplace in Izmir the previous day on the eve of the rally, killing one person and leaving 14 others injured. PHOTO: AFP |
