"Will this people who have never bowed to great powers now bow to those who fled the ballot box and stole the will of the people?"

Turkish police and the Erdogan media say that "tens of thousands" gathered in Istanbul on Saturday to protest the jailing of the city’s Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, the key political rival of President Erdogan, in Turkey’s largest demonstrations in over a decade.

Demonstration organizers said that there are over 2 million demonstrators in several cities participating.

Turks of all walks of life have heeded opposition calls and taken to the streets nationwide since Imamoglu was detained last week and then jailed pending trial on graft charges.

Protests against the arrest of Istanbul’s mayor have been mostly peaceful, but nearly 2,000 people have been detained.