MORE than a dozen people have been detained after violence against an opposition election rally in Turkey’s eastern city of Erzurum over the weekend, the country’s justice minister said on Monday. 

Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) was speaking at a rally on Sunday afternoon when a large group of roughly 200 protesters began throwing rocks. 

Mr Imamoglu was campaigning on behalf of CHP leader and presidential candidate Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the main opponent to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, days before the May 14 presidential and parliamentary elections. 

Mr Imamoglu said that police and pro-Erdogan officials in Erzurum allowed the attack to go ahead. 

“There are citizens here who are injured and the police just stood by,” Mr Imamoglu said in footage of the incident. 

Speaking on local news channel A Haber on Monday morning, Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag announced that 13 people had so far been detained.

Mr Kilicdaroglu posted a video on social media following Sunday’s incident where he accused the mob responsible of being a “militarist coalition” who were attempting to “scare people away from the ballot box.”

Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu responded to the incident by claiming it was just “theatre.”

“They provoke such incidents, then they claim ‘they did this to us, they did that to us’.

“They had put forward a speech that was meant to agitate, to provoke the crowd.”

The contest between Mr Erdogan and Mr Kilicdaroglu appears to be running neck-and-neck.

 But the CHP has long said that the country’s elections are played out on an uneven playing field, claims backed by international observers.

Some 90 per cent of Turkey's media is in the hands of the government or its backers, according to Reporters Without Borders, ensuring overwhelming airtime for the president. 

Only a handful of opposition newspapers remain in print, most having transitioned to online-only editions.

Last month the CHP launched a legal action against broadcaster TRT for failing to screen its campaign video.

“Unfortunately, the Turkish Radio and Television Corporation has moved away from being an impartial and objective institution and has turned into the Tayyip Radio and Television Corporation,” CHP lawmaker Tuncay Ozkan said.

Broadcasting authority RTUK fined independent channels Fox News, Halk TV and TELE1 last month over news and commentary it said breached regulations. 

Ilhan Tasci, an opposition-appointed RTUK member, said in all three cases the stations had been accused of criticising or questioning ruling-party actions.