Turkish activists behind mass 2013 anti-government protests on Monday rejected as "irrational" and "illegal" an indictment against prominent Turkish businessman Osman Kavala on charges he sought to overthrow the state as Turkey's economy fell into its first recession in a decade, official data showed on Monday, just weeks before President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government faces local elections where growth and inflation will be key issues for voters. "This irrational and unlawful bill of indictment must be withdrawn immediately," Mucella Yapici, spokeswoman for the Taksim Solidarity activist group, told a press conference in Istanbul. She said the suspects "must be released immediately." Western governments accuse Erdogan's government of eroding rights especially since a 2016 failed coup and the mass arrests and purge of tens of thousands of people from the public sector that followed. The so-called Gezi Park rallies constituted the biggest challenge against Erdogan's government, and snowballed into nationwide protests against the country's rulers. The police response drew criticism from Turkey's Western allies. "We reject your futile efforts to smear Gezi!" said Yapici. "Gezi is this land's hope for equality, freedom and justice." "We will never allow you to recast the Gezi resistance as an action associated with crime, terror, coups or insurrections." Meanwhile, Economic output contracted by 2.4 percent in the final three months of the year compared to the third quarter on a seasonally and calendar-adjusted basis, the Turkish Statistics Institute (TUIK) said. That followed a revised 1.6 percent contraction in the third quarter. Two consecutive quarter-on-quarter contractions in economic output is widely considered to be the definition of a recession. The flagging economy coupled with a currency crisis last year that battered the lira are sensitive issues for Erdogan and his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) before the municipal vote on March 31. Inflation has also remained high. It struck a 15-year peak in October at 25.24 percent before falling below 20 percent in February, with food prices hit particularly hard. — Agencies
