The Turkish opposition will fight "to the end" against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. 

This is what the leader of the opposition People's Republican Party (CHP) Özgür Özel said in an interview with AFP. He accused the Turkish president of carrying out a "coup" with the arrest of popular opposition Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoglu.

"Erdogan carried out a coup against his own rival. He carried out a coup against the next president of Turkey, our presidential candidate. That is why our resistance and struggle against this will continue until the end," Özel said.

He added that the opposition must now "force" the president to hold early elections following last month's arrest of Imamoglu, who was considered Erdogan's main rival in the election.

The largest opposition protests to sweep Turkey since 2013 have dwindled over the past 10 days as the end of Ramadan was celebrated and universities were not open.

To keep the momentum going, the CHP is now calling for nightly rallies in an Istanbul neighborhood every Wednesday.

"After that, every weekend, we will hold at least one rally in one city in Anatolia. We are starting the first one in Samsun," the Black Sea town where Turkey's founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk began the 1919 war of independence, Özel said.

The party's petition for Imamoglu's release has collected 7.2 million signatures, the opposition leader explained. He added that the goal is to have at least half of Turkey's 61.4 million voters back the campaign.

"We are going to give Erdogan the biggest vote of no confidence in history," Özel said, confirming the call for early elections.

Some "7.2 million people have signed this petition so far to force him (Erdogan) to hold early elections," he stressed.

Imamoglu is Erdogan's main political rival and the CHP's candidate for the 2028 presidential election.

His detention last month triggered mass protests. Nearly 2,000 people, including students, were arrested in the crackdown. | BGNES