IZMIR (Turkey), May 13: Hundreds of thousands of pro-secular Turks rallied in the Aegean city of Izmir on Sunday, keeping up pressure on the Islamist-rooted government after political turmoil forced early elections in July.
Undeterred by a bomb blast on the eve of the protest, demonstrators packed a seafront square in Izmir, Turkey's third largest city, brandishing Turkish flags and portraits of the country's secularist founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.
Hundreds showed their support from the sea, sailing along the coast in boats adorned with the red-and-white national flag. Others shouted from rooftops and balconies over roads clogged with buses carrying people from out of town.
Security was stepped up after a bomb ripped through an open-air market in the city on Saturday morning, killing a vendor and injuring 14 other people.
Some 3,000 policemen were deployed across Izmir as coast guard boats patrolled the waters. Air traffic over the demonstration venue was banned.
There has been no claim of responsibility for Saturday's blast. Separatist Kurds, far-left militants as well as Islamist extremists have carried out bomb attacks in Turkey in the past.
The media put the number of demonstrators at hundreds of thousands, with the Sky Turk news channel estimating as many as one million participants.
“Turkey is secular, it will remain secular,” protestors shouted, adopting the most popular chant from similar mass demonstrations held recently in the capital Ankara, the largest city Istanbul and Manisa in the west.
“We will not surrender the country to reactionary forces,” one man shouted.
Banners read, “Unite against bigotry,” “We follow Ataturk's path.” The rallies began last month over the prospect of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), the moderate offshoot of a now-banned Islamist movement, propelling one of its own to the presidency.
The presidential election grew into a crisis, the worst the government has faced since coming to power in 2002, as parliament, blocked by an opposition boycott, failed twice to hold a legal vote to elect a president.
The turmoil, exacerbated by a stiff warning from the military that it stood ready to defend the secular order, forced Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to bring legislative elections forward to July 22 from November.
Despite the huge turnout, the rally in Izmir ended in disappointment for many as centre-left leaders attending the protest defied expectations that they would confirm an intention to join forces against the AKP ahead of the July 22 elections.
