The Mayor of Istanbul, Turkey’s largest city, Ekrem İmamoğlu, has been arrested in an unprecedented judicial process.
President Erdoğan is using this method to eliminate his biggest rival in the next election, Ekrem İmamoğlu.
Everyone knows that the corruption allegations against İmamoğlu are nothing compared to the massive corruption scandals involving Erdoğan and his party. While no investigations are launched into the billions of dollars of corruption linked to Erdoğan and his government, İmamoğlu is being accused of fabricated corruption charges in an attempt to remove him from politics.
İmamoğlu is accused of forming and leading a criminal organisation for corruption.
Millions of people who believe this charge is baseless have been protesting across Turkey for days.
The scheme is so blatant that, for example, decisions regarding İmamoğlu are revealed to the public in advance through TV channels close to Erdoğan. These pro-government media outlets have access to information even before İmamoğlu’s lawyers. Court rulings are leaked to these news organisations before İmamoğlu and his legal team are even informed.
Not only İmamoğlu but also around 1,000 people have been detained in the past week, with hundreds being formally arrested. Among those detained are hundreds of students.
Erdoğan’s next move is expected to be appointing a government trustee to take over İmamoğlu’s party, the Republican People’s Party (CHP). Because of this, the CHP leadership has been forced to call for an extraordinary congress.
Apart from the few far-right parties allied with Erdoğan, all opposition parties are protesting against the injustice towards İmamoğlu, the arbitrary arrests of hundreds of innocent people, and the fabricated charges used to imprison elected mayors. At least 20 political parties have called for resistance against this unlawful crackdown. Many parties, led by the Labour Party (Emek Partisi), have called for a general strike and mass resistance.
Despite all these human rights violations, İmamoğlu’s fellow mayor, Sadiq Khan, and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer have remained silent. This silence amounts to complicity in Erdoğan’s dictatorial actions. Steps must be taken to prevent the destruction of democracy in Turkey.
