Thousands of Turks ramped up protests on Thursday despite a ban on street gatherings over what they called the undemocratic detention of Istanbul’s mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, as the opposition sought to pin the blame on President Tayyip Erdogan.

Thousands of people have gathered outside Istanbul’s city hall for a second consecutive night to rally against the arrest of the city’s popular mayor.

Turkey's authoritarian crackdown on political opposition continued Thursday with 37 people arrested for social media posts deemed "provocative." The posts came after the arrest of opposition leader Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu.