Opposition party declares jailed Istanbul Mayor presidential candidate
Istanbul’s embattled Ekrem Imamoglu was officially nominated as a presidential candidate by the opposition CHP party for the 2028 elections, a party spokesman told AFP on Monday.
The Republican People’s Party, the main opposition party and the second largest party in parliament held a primary election on Sunday, at which the only candidate was Imamoglu, the main political rival of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Imamoglu has been arrested, interrogated, jailed and stripped of his mayorship in less than a week following a graft and terror probe that the opposition has slammed as a political “coup.”
A Turkish court was set to rule on Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu’s detention on Sunday, after vast crowds rallying in support of him clashed with riot police.
The Caglayan court was expected to decide whether to charge or release him, his lawyer said, after a fourth night of protests sparked a harsh crackdown in Turkey’s worst street unrest in over a decade.
The popular opposition mayor, who is the biggest political rival of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was arrested on Wednesday, just days before he was to be named the main opposition CHP’s candidate for the 2028 presidential race.
He was detained in connection with two probes alleging graft and “aiding a terror organisation” — accusations which he on Saturday told police were “immoral and baseless”.
-Turkey detains 1,100 people since Erdogan rival’s arrest –
Turkish police have detained more than 1,100 people, including journalists since the arrest of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s main rival sparked the country’s worst unrest in years, a minister said on Monday.
The demonstrations began in Istanbul after Ekrem Imamoglu’s arrest last week and have since spread to more than 55 of Turkey’s 81 provinces, sparking clashes with riot police and drawing international condemnation.
The popular 53-year-old has been widely seen as the only politician who could defeat Turkey’s longtime leader Erdogan at the ballot box.
In just four days he went from being the mayor of Istanbul, a post that launched Erdogan’s political rise decades earlier, to being arrested, interrogated, jailed and stripped of the mayorship as a result of a graft and terror probe.
On Sunday, he was overwhelmingly voted in as the main opposition CHP’s candidate for the 2028 presidential run, with some 15 million people casting their ballots in a show of support for Imamoglu.
Observers said it was the looming primary that triggered the move against Imamoglu, the main political rival of Erdogan who has dominated Turkey’s politics since 2003, first as prime minister and then as president.
His jailing drew sharp condemnation from Germany, which called it “totally unacceptable” as Greece said moves to undermine civil liberties “cannot be tolerated”.
And the EU warned Ankara it needed to demonstrate “a clear commitment to democratic norms”. Overnight, France’s foreign ministry said it was a “serious attack on democracy”.
– ‘We cannot remain silent’ –
On Monday, students at the main universities in Istanbul and Ankara called for a boycott of lectures.
Young protesters were also preparing to hold a rally at 1400 GMT by Besiktas port on the Bosphorus, ahead of the main nightly rally outside City Hall at 1730 GMT.
Sunday night’s gathering descended into fierce clashes with riot police kicking and beating people in Istanbul, AFP correspondents said.
Before dawn on Monday, police detained 10 Turkish journalists at home, including an AFP photographer, “for covering the protests”, the MLSA rights group said.
“What is being done to members of the press and journalists is a matter of freedom. None of us can remain silent about this,” wrote Dilek Kaya Imamoglu on X.
Since Wednesday, police had detained more than 1,133 people for “illegal activities”, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said on Monday.
Among them were two lawyers who were defending protesters detained by the police, the Bar Association in the western coastal city of Izmir said.
Imamoglu — who has denounced the judicial moves against him as a political “execution without trial” — sent a defiant message from jail via his lawyers.
“I wear a white shirt that you cannot stain. I have a strong arm that you cannot twist. I won’t budge an inch. I will win this war,” he said.
Throughout Sunday, millions voted in the CHP’s highly symbolic primary, which was opened to voters beyond the party’s 1.7 million members.
“Out of a total of 15 million votes, 13,211,000 are solidarity votes,” City Hall said, referring to the number of ballots cast by those who were not CHP members.
Faced with the massive protests, Turkey’s authorities sought to shut down more than 700 accounts on X, the online platform said on Sunday.
– Jailing of Istanbul mayor ‘totally unacceptable’ – Germany
Germany condemned on Monday the jailing of Istanbul mayor and Turkish opposition leader Ekrem Imamoglu and said it was following developments with “great concern”.
“The arrest and suspension of the mayor of Istanbul is totally unacceptable. This must be clarified very quickly and transparently,” Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s spokesman Steffen Hebestreit told a press conference.
Turkish authorities detained Imamoglu on Wednesday on charges of “corruption” and “supporting a terrorist organisation”. On Sunday he was stripped of his position as mayor and jailed.
“We are currently observing the developments in Turkey with great concern,” Hebestreit said.
He said Germany had made “great efforts” to promote good ties between Turkey and the European Union.
“The latest developments are a bad sign for democracy in Turkey but also for the future development of these relations,” Hebestreit said.
– EU urges Turkey to ‘uphold democratic values’ –
The European Commission Monday urged Turkey to “uphold democratic values” as both a member of the Council of Europe and an EU candidate state, following the jailing of Istanbul mayor and opposition leader Ekrem Imamoglu.
“We want Turkey to remain anchored to Europe, but this requires a clear commitment to democratic norms and practices,” commission spokesperson Guillaume Mercier told reporters.
AFP
