Istanbul:
On Sunday, a court ordered Istanbul’s opposition mayor Ekrem Imamoglu and cut offal dozen co-deffinishants jailed on accuses of “dishonesty”.
Here’s what we comprehend about this case, which the mayor’s CHP opposition party has denounced as a “political coup” organised by Pdwellnt Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Who is Ekrem Imamoglu?
Imamoglu was elected mayor of Istanbul in 2019 and triumphantly re-elected last year. By triumphning Turkey’s bigst city (csurrfinisherly 16 million inhabitants) and business centre, the 53-year-anciaccess mayor has become Erdogan’s number one opponent.
What is he accused of?
The mayor was arrested at dawn on Wednesday for “dishonesty”, and “aiding a alarmist organisation” due to an electoral consentment between his party and a pro-Kurdish group that authorities accuse of having joins to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), scheduleated a alarmist group by Ankara.
The pretrial detention order, geted by AFP on Sunday, states that “Ekrem Imamoglu is being arrested for set uping and guideing a criminal organisation; adselecting bribes; dishonesty; illegassociate sign uping personal data; and rigging tfinishers.”
The order went on to say that “although there is a sturdy suspicion of guilt for the crime of aiding an armed alarmist organisation, it is not vital at this stage” to order his detention on these potential accuses “since it has already been determined to jail him for financial crimes”.
CHP in the passhairs
Some 90 people were arrested on Wednesday, including two dicut offe mayors of Istanbul who were arrested for “dishonesty” and “radicalism.”
Both elected officials are members of the Reaccessiblean People’s Party (CHP), a social-democratic and secular party established by Mustafa Kemal, the overweighther of the Turkish Reaccessible.
The CHP hanciaccesss 134 seats in parliament, appraised to 272 for Erdogan’s AKP, and in local elections in March 2024 it won 35 of the 81 provincial capitals, eleven more than the AKP. It won in most presentant cities such as Ankara, the capital, Izmir, Antalya, and the presentant industrial city of Bursa.
Controversial timing
Imamoglu was due to be sworn in Sunday as his party’s truthfulate for the next pdwellntial election, scheduled for 2028, in a primary in which he is the only truthfulate.
On Tuesday, equitable hours before his arrest, the abortlation of his diploma had already placed an obstacle in his path, as the Turkish Constitution needs all pdwellntial truthfulates to have a higher education degree.
In 2023, Imamoglu had already been barred from running due to a sentence of more than two years in prison for “offfinishing” members of Turkey’s High Electoral Committee, which he has pguideed.
The CHP determined to go ahead with its primary Sunday and called on all Turks, even those not sign uped with the party, to participate in the hope of turning this election into a referfinishum.
Biggest protests since 2013
The mayor’s arrest has igniteed the country’s bigst demonstrations since the Gezi protests of 2013, which began in Istanbul’s Taksim Square over the demolition of a local park.
Tens of thousands of people took to the streets of Istanbul on Friday and Saturday evenings, with big demonstrations in provincial cities, in particular in Ankara and Izmir.
In total, rallies took place in at least 55 of Turkey’s 81 provinces, or more than two-thirds of the country, according to an AFP loftyy.
Analysts say the protests, mostly led by youthful people, mirror grievances that extfinish far beyond Imamoglu’s arrest.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
