Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is facing what many label as the biggest threat to his 22 years in power, as tens of thousands of citizens continue to stage demonstrations in protest of the March 19 detention on corruption and terrorism charges of Istanbul’s opposition mayor, Ekrem Imamoglu. 

The protests are the largest to rock Turkey since 2013, when government plans to fill a rare green space in Istanbul with a shopping mall ignited mass demonstrations across the country for more than a month. 

What began as a brazen scheme to eliminate his biggest political rival is looking like Erdogan’s biggest strategic mistake, forcing him to double down in ways that are torpedoing economic recovery and exposing the biggest public repudiation of the 71-year-old strongman who long looked invincible. “Unlike in 2013, there’s a political party steering the crowds and the crowds are far bigger,” Cengiz Candar, a lawmaker for the pro-Kurdish DEM Party, told Al-Monitor. University students from across the country are leading the charge.  

If presidential elections were held today, few doubt that Imamoglu — who defeated Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) three times in municipal polls — would prevail in a landslide. For five nights running, giant crowds have assembled around the Istanbul municipality building in scenes reminiscent of the 2014 Euromaidan protests in Ukraine that forced pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych to step down. Their size is estimated to have surpassed 1 million people. Imamoglu, who protests his innocence in what are widely seen as politically motivated cases based on flimsy evidence and secret witness testimonies, has vowed to not bow.