Hundreds attend Berlin demonstration for detained Istanbul mayor.

Several hundred protesters demonstrated in Berlin on Sunday in favor of Turkish opposition leader Ekrem Imamoglu, whose detention has caused Turkey’s greatest street unrest in almost a decade.

According to organizers, around 1,000 people joined the rally in downtown Berlin, while police estimated that number to be around 400.

Many others wore Imamoglu masks or brandished banners with slogans like “We are all Imamoglu” and criticized Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

“With the Erdogan government, Turkey is going in the wrong direction,” said Muharrem Dogan, 75, a retired businessman.

“We want democracy, rule of law, and order restored. “We’re fighting the Erdogan machine,” said Dogan, who has lived in Germany since 1971.

“I am here to defend democracy in Turkey,” said Sebnem Turhan, a 27-year-old archaeology student.

“We are here because of the mass incarcerations of the protesters and all kinds of violations of democratic rights in Turkey,” according to her.

Hundreds of thousands of people have flocked to the streets in Turkey since Imamoglu was detained on March 19 on corruption accusations, which his supporters claim are baseless.

The large protests triggered a brutal government reaction, which was strongly denounced by rights groups and criticized internationally.

Imamoglu, widely seen as the only person capable of beating Erdogan at the ballot box, was elected as the opposition CHP party’s candidate for the 2028 election on the same day he was imprisoned.

Around three million individuals of Turkish descent reside in Germany, many of them are descendants of “guest workers” invited under a huge economic plan in the 1960s and 1970s.

Turkish voters in Germany have always been ardent supporters of Erdogan, with 67 percent voting for him in Turkey’s most recent election in 2023.