The initial negotiations in Istanbul concern the protests that broke out after the city's mayor Ekrem Imamoglu was arrested in a morning raid on March 19. A large number of opposition members were arrested at the same time.
The protests in Istanbul, but also throughout the country, were among the most extensive carried out in Turkey over the past decade.
In the dock on Friday, 189 defendants sat, where journalists, university teachers, and lawyers shared seats with many students.
Reporters charged
In the courtroom in the Caglayan district, relatives had gathered with representatives from the opposition party CHP, according to the AFP news agency's correspondent. The now imprisoned mayor Imamoglu belongs to the CHP party and has been appointed as the party's presidential candidate in the next election after his arrest.
If guilty verdicts are handed down, the sentence can range from six months to four years in prison, according to the human rights group Human Rights Watch (HRW).
The first day of the trial also dealt with procedural issues. Lawyers demanded, among other things, that the journalists be released, as they had only done their job.
They were (at the protest sites) as journalists to cover the protests. That's what they are paid to do, said lawyer Veysel Ok.
The judge rejected the request, but said that the journalist cases would be handled separately.
Multiple charges
Swedish journalist Joakim Medin was arrested when he traveled to Turkey to perform journalistic work in connection with the protests. It is unclear whether Medin would be among those who appeared in the initial court hearings on Friday.
Istanbul's prosecutor's office says that a total of 819 defendants will be reviewed in 20 separate criminal investigations.
HRW says that a review of nine charges, involving 650 defendants, "lacks evidence of criminal offenses".
