Turkey’s young ‘hope of millions’ held in jail as Erdoğan cracks down on protests

Popular student demonstrator Berkay Gezgin, 21, snatched off street by police outside office of detained Istanbul mayor

When 21-year-old Berkay Gezgin left the interior of Istanbul city hall, a squad of police was waiting for him outside. Protests that flooded the streets outside the headquarters of his political hero, detained mayor Ekrem mamolu, had begun trickling away by midnight, but hundreds of riot police remained clustered around the municipality building.

Gezgin became the face of youth support for mamolu when he met him on the campaign trail during his first run for mayor in 2019, coining the slogan Everything will be fine", which the Istanbul mayor later used in his campaign.