A Turkish court on March 23 ordered the arrest of the mayor of Istanbul, a top rival to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu will remain jailed as he awaits a trial on corruption charges. He was detained after authorities raided his home earlier this week, kicking off the largest swath of street protests Turkey has seen in more than a decade.
Some see his arrest as a political move to ice out a major contender for Turkey’s 2028 presidential election.
Government officials insist that Turkey’s courts operate independently and have denied accusations of political motivations to take legal actions against opposition figures.
The court moved to jail Imamoglu on suspicion of running a criminal organization, the prosecutor’s office said. They accuse him of accepting bribes, extortion, bid-rigging, and illegally recording personal data.
Over the weekend, more than 300 people were detained for disturbances and protests, according to Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya. Hundreds of thousands have joined public demonstrations in support of Imamoglu.
Although many of the protests have been peaceful, some have sparked violence, with police responding with water cannons, pepper spray, and tear gas and by shooting plastic pellets at protesters in Istanbul, Ankara, and Izmir. Some protesters had thrown stones, fireworks, and other missiles at riot police.
Before Imamoglu’s arrest, more than 1.5 million members of the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) began to hold a presidential primary election to endorse him as their candidate. Because the Istanbul mayor was the party’s sole candidate, the primary, which was announced in February, was mostly symbolic.
The Republican People’s Party set up symbolic ballot boxes throughout Turkey to give others who are not party members an opportunity to show support for Imamoglu. Large crowds amassed on the morning of March 23 to cast “solidarity ballots.”
The mayor posted a message on social media calling on people to show “their struggle for democracy and justice to the entire world” at the ballot box. He suggested Erdogan would face defeat by their righteousness, courage, humility, and “smiling face.”
Before this detention, the mayor faced other criminal cases that could lead to prison sentences and a political ban. Imamoglu had been appealing a 2022 conviction for insulting members of Turkey’s Supreme Electoral Council.
A university also nullified his diploma this week, saying there were inconsistencies in his transfer from a private college in northern Cyprus three decades ago. That decision effectively bans him from running for president, as candidates must be university graduates. The mayor has promised to challenge the decision.
He was first elected mayor of Istanbul, the nation’s largest city, in March 2019. Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party had controlled the city for a quarter-century. That party moved to void the municipal election results, alleging irregularities.
After a repeat election several months later, Imamoglu won again and became mayor of the city of 16 million. He retained his seat after last year’s local elections, at which time his Republican People’s Party made large gains over Erdogan’s party.
