ANKARA, Turkey — Ekrem Imamoglu, the mayor of Istanbul and a preferred determine, had basked within the glow of what he typically jokingly dubbed his political miracle — the one particular person to have crushed Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling get together in not one, however three native elections.
On Wednesday, dozens of police officers raided his residence round daybreak and detained him for questioning as a part of investigations into alleged corruption and terror hyperlinks.
Many see the arrest as a part of a broader marketing campaign to undermine the mayor and eradicate a key challenger to Erdogan earlier than the subsequent presidential elections. The transfer has raised issues in regards to the equity of future elections below Erdogan who has grown more and more authoritarian throughout his greater than two-decade rule as prime minister and president.
It is usually the newest in a string of crackdowns on opponents and dissenters in Turkey in recent times.
When the 53-year-old businessman and former district mayor was chosen to run as mayor for Turkey’s largest metropolis and financial hub in 2019, he was largely an unknown determine and lots of skeptics questioned the choice. The previous chief of his pro-secular Republican Individuals’s Get together, or CHP, reassured critics that after the individuals bought to know him, his attraction would resonate with voters.
Imamoglu went on to win the election, delivering a historic blow to Erdogan and the president’s Justice and Improvement Get together, which had managed Istanbul for a quarter-century. The lack of Istanbul was a major setback to Erdogan who himself had launched his political profession because the mayor of the metropolis of 16 million.
Imamoglu was in a position to function mayor for simply 18 days earlier than the election outcome was annulled and his mandate was revoked over alleged vote irregularities.
The problem resulted in a repeat of the election a couple of months later, which Imamoglu additionally gained – with a bigger margin.
In an interview with the Associated Press at the time, Imamoglu stated: “I imagine the individuals of Istanbul will give the mandatory response to this injustice on the polls on account of their perception in democracy. And God keen, the victors will likely be Istanbul and democracy.”
The mayor went on to win final 12 months’s native elections when the CHP made vital good points amid a pointy financial decline.
On Sunday, the CHP was scheduled to carry a main election the place Imamoglu is to be nominated its candidate for the presidency. The get together’s chief has stated the first will go forward regardless of Imamoglu’s detention.
The raid on Imamoglu’s residence and his arrest got here after Istanbul prosecutors issued arrest warrants for the mayor and greater than 100 different individuals as a part of investigations into alleged corruption, in response to the state-run Anadolu Company.
The suspects are accused of alleged racketeering and a large number of different monetary crimes.
The mayor can be suspected of aiding the outlawed Kurdistan Employees’ Get together, or PKK, by allegedly forming an alliance with a Kurdish umbrella group for the Istanbul municipal elections. The PKK is listed as a terrorist group by Turkey and its Western allies.
The CHP and different opposition critics see a politically motivated plot in opposition to one among Turkey’s hottest politicians and accuse Erdogan’s authorities of finishing up a “coup” to forestall his political rise. The justice minister has rejected the claims of alleged authorities strain over the courts, insisting the judiciary was performing impartially.
Opinion polls in Turkey have pointed at a slight lead by the CHP over Erdogan’s get together.
A day earlier than his arrest, Istanbul College invalidated Imamoglu’s diploma, citing alleged irregularities in his 1990 switch from a personal college in northern Cyprus to its School of Enterprise Administration.
The unprecedented resolution successfully disqualifies the politician from working for president. Underneath Turkish legal guidelines, solely college graduates can maintain presidential workplace. Imamoglu has stated he’ll legally problem the choice.
Even earlier than his arrest, Imamoglu confronted a barrage of authorized challenges, together with allegations of making an attempt to affect a judicial professional investigating opposition-led municipalities and allegedly threatening a prosecutor. The circumstances might end in jail sentences and a political ban.
In 2022, he was convicted of insulting members of Turkey’s Supreme Electoral Council following the annulment of the 2019 mayoral race and sentenced to greater than two years in jail. He appealed his conviction, which might additionally bar him from holding public workplace, and has remained free throughout the ongoing course of.
Latest months in Turkey have seen a wave of arrests and crackdowns concentrating on political figures and activists, together with journalists and elected mayors who’ve been faraway from workplace and changed with government-appointed officers.
Two enterprise leaders have been briefly detained and at the moment are dealing with prosecution for criticizing the federal government’s insurance policies. A expertise supervisor representing a number of Turkish actors was arrested in January and charged with trying to overthrow the federal government for her alleged involvement in anti-government protests in 2013.
Umit Ozdag, the chief of a small far-right get together and outspoken Erdogan critic was additionally arrested in January on prices of inciting hatred and hostility, via a sequence of anti-refugee posts on social media.
Amongst different high-profile detainees are Selahattin Demirtas, the favored former chief of Turkey’s pro-Kurdish political get together who was arrested in 2016 on terrorism-related prices and Osman Kavala, a businessman and rights activist who was imprisoned in 2017 for allegedly trying to overthrow the federal government. Their continued detention regardless of European Court docket of Human Rights selections towards their launch has drawn worldwide condemnation.
