A Turkish opposition politician has been jailed after he was arrested on corruption charges.
Ekrem Imamoglu, the mayor of Istanbul and one of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s main politically rivals, had been due to be formally nominated as the Republican People’s Party (CHP) 2028 presidential nominee in a vote on Sunday.
The arrest of Mr Imamoglu and more than 100 other people sparked some of the largest protests in Turkey for decades.
The demonstrations quickly turned violent with footage showing clashes between protestors and riot police before the crowd swarmed through the city after police overwhelmed by the scale of the demonstration.
Despite efforts from Erdogan’s government to ban the gatherings and the use of water cannons have failed to deter the protesters taken to the streets for five nights in a row.
On Sunday he was formally arrested and charged with ‘establishing and managing a criminal organisation, taking bribes, extortion, unlawfully recording personal data and rigging a tender’.
Mr Imamoglu will remain in custody until his trial.
According to Turkey’s interior ministry, he has also been suspended from his democratically elected post as Mayor.
Ekrem Imamoglu (pictured), the mayor of Istanbul and one of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ‘s main politically rivals, had been due to be formally nominated as the Republican People’s Party (CHP) 2028 presidential nominee in a vote on Sunday
Erdogan is constitutionally barred from standing due to term limits and he has started to see support for his government is waning after 22 years in power
The arrest of Mr Imamoglu and over 100 other people sparked some of the largest protests in Turkey for decades
A defiant Mr Imamoglu took to social media to criticise his arrest as a ‘black stain on our democracy’ and claim that Turkey has had ‘enough’ of Erdogan..
Despite the unrest and Mr Imamoglu’s remand in custody, the vote for the CHP’s presidential candidate selection.
The BBC reported that unverified figures from the CHP suggest nearly 15million people voted in the poll where Mr Imamoglu was the only candidates.
Mr Imamoglu’s arrest does not prevent his candidacy and election as president, but if he is convicted of any of the charges against him, he will not be able to run.
The popular politician beat the ruling AKP party to win Istanbul’s mayoral election in 2019.
This was hailed as a historic result at the time due to Erdogan’s party having controlled the city of 16million for a quarter-century.
The party pushed to void the municipal election results in the city of 16 million, alleging irregularities which resulted in a repeat of the election a few months later, which Mr Imamoglu won comfortably.
Since then, he has been touted as a future leader of Turkey who could bring an end the AKP’s 22 year’s in power.
Protesters in Istanbul yesterday. Supporters of Mr Imamoglu fanned out across the historic city, with many hundreds of citizens also gathering outside the CHP’s headquarters in Ankara, the capital
Mr Imamoglu’s arrest does not prevent his candidacy and election as president, but if he is convicted of any of the charges against him, he will not be able to run
On top of this, the CHP won the 2024 local elections and Erdogan is constitutionally barred from standing due to term limits which means a change of government looks increasingly possible.
This has led opposition figures to berate the arrests as politically motivated – an allegation rejected by the government.
Support for the president among voters is waning, and remains particularly low in Istanbul.
Just 43 per cent of Turkish adults nationwide back Erdogan – down 32 percentage points from 2017, according to a survey by the Pew Research Center.
The sentiment was palpable as protestors took to the streets today to ‘unite against those who betray democracy and the national will’.
‘Ekrem Imamoglu is growing and gaining strength in the eyes of the people,’ Bulent Gulten, among them, told journalists.
Security forces barricaded the streets leading to the police headquarters, with riot police and water cannon trucks blocking the roads as the Istanbul governor’s office banned all public gatherings after Mr Imamoglu’s detention.
‘We came here to support the mayor. They arrested him unjustly. So we are here to support him,’ Murat Sapankaya, a municipal worker attending the protest said.
Even if the charges are dropped against Mr Imamoglu, he faces further obstacles on the road to the 2028 election.
Istanbul University last week invalidated Mr Imamoglu’s diploma, effectively disqualifying him from running in the next presidential race.
A university degree is a requisite for running in elections under Turkish law.
The university cited alleged irregularities in his 1990 transfer from a private university in northern Cyprus to its Faculty of Business Administration.
Mr Imamoglu said he would challenge the decision.
In a social media post in English, Mr Imamoglu said he stands ‘resolute, entrusting myself not only to the 16 million residents of Istanbul but to the 86 million citizens’ of Turkey.
Support fanned out beyond the historic city of Istanbul, with many hundreds of citizens also gathering outside the CHP’s headquarters in Ankara, the capital.
Lawmakers from the party staged a protest inside the parliament, disrupting proceedings there before marching out.
Turkey’s pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party condemned the detentions and called for the immediate release of all taken into custody.
As he was being arrested, Ongun, the mayor’s aide, appealed for support on X, though he at the time did not appear to know that the mayor was also being taken into custody.
‘They think they can silence us and prevent us from defending and supporting Ekrem Imamoglu,’ Ongun said.
‘I entrust Ekrem Imamoglu to the Turkish nation. Protect, watch over and support him. They cannot be defeat the nation.’
Separately, police also detained a prominent investigative journalist, Ismail Saymaz, for questioning, the opposition-aligned Halk TV reported.
Meanwhile, internet-access advocacy group netblocks.org reported Wednesday that access has been restricted in Turkey to popular social media platforms.
