Tens of thousands of Turks swarmed a central Istanbul square on Thursday in solidarity with the city's opposition mayor after he was banned from politics ahead of next year's presidential election

TL;DR

Germany called it "a heavy blow to democracy" while France urged Turkey to "reverse its slide away from the rule of law, democracy and respect for fundamental rights".'Absolutely not afraid'Turkey's fractured opposition has struggled to unite behind a single candidate to challenge Erdogan's two-decade rule in the upcoming vote.But his secular CHP party's leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu -- a bookish former civil servant who struggles in opinion polls -- is still pushing hard for his own candidacy.Its size also rivalled the number of people Erdogan generally draws at his own almost weekly campaign events.Local media reports said a few hundred people showed up to a separate rally in Imamoglu's native Black Sea city of Trabzon."

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