Anger over the detention of Ekrem İmamoğlu has spilled over into the fiercest protests to grip Turkey in over a decade.
Mass demonstrations continued in Turkey over the weekend after Istanbul mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu – widely considered President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s fiercest political rival – was arrested, imprisoned and charged with corruption.
Tens of thousands of people defied a four-day ban on protests to take to the streets, with clashes reported between protesters and Turkish riot police.
At least 1,133 protesters have been arrested according to Turkey’s Interior Ministry, while 123 police officers have been injured.
İmamoğlu was first detained last Wednesday.
He was then arrested and imprisoned on Sunday and formally charged with corruption. He insists the allegations against him are politically motivated.
İmamoğlu’s imprisonment came just as a ballot was being held to elect him as the presidential candidate for the Republican People’s Party (CHP), Turkey’s oldest political party.
The CHP party said on Monday that close to 15 million people had voted for İmamoğlu, in a ballot that for the first time was opened to the general public.
Those figures have not been independently verified.
Although his arrest does not prevent him from running in the next presidential elections in 2028, he will be barred from holding political office if he is convicted of the corruption charges levelled against him.
Who is Ekrem İmamoğlu and why has his arrest triggered demonstrations?
İmamoğlu is a popular, leading figure of the Republican People’s Party (CHP) and has served as the Istanbul mayor since 2019.
The CHP is Turkey’s oldest party, founded by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.
İmamoğlu, now 54 years old, dramatically retained his role as Istanbul mayor in last year’s municipality elections with a wide-margin victory, as Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) suffered major losses in key urban battlefields.
He is widely considered the biggest threat to President Erdogan’s two-decade rule.
University students have led protests against his arrests, indicating a strong support amog young voters.
Erdogan, who has already served three terms as president, cannot run again unless he changes Turkey’s constitution.
ADVERTISEMENTThe next presidential election is due to be held in 2028.
“I think that the protests are in a sense about İmamoğlu but also a resistance to the (…) authoritarian bargain moving into something other than what Turks have signed up for,” Aslı Aydıntaşbaş, associate senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR), said in a podcast on Monday.
Speaking to Euronews, Demir Murat Seyrek, Adjunct Professor at the Brussels School of Governance said that Ekrem İmamoğlu has become “a symbol for democracy in Turkey.”
“There was a big hope, especially among young people, that he will be the next president of Turkey and democracy will come back, gundamental rights and freedoms will be re-established,” Seyrek explained.
ADVERTISEMENT“İmamoğlu has become a symbol of the fear people have of more authoritarianism in Turkey.”
What are the charges against him?
A court said on Sunday that İmamoğlu had been imprisoned pending trial as part of a ‘corruption’ investigation.
The Turkish prosecutor’s office described the charges as running a criminal organisation, accepting bribes, extortion, illegally recording personal data and bid-rigging, according to AP.
A previous request to imprison him on terror-related charges was rejected. The prosecutor had accused him of aiding the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, considered a terrorist organisation by the European Union and other Western governments.
ADVERTISEMENTHis arrest has been described as an “attack on democracy” by the French and German foreing ministries.
İmamoğlu’s university diploma – a prerequisite for holding office in Turkey – was also revoked last week in what his supporters say is a clear effort to cripple President Recep Tayyip Erdogan most formidable rival.
Istanbul University said the diploma would be nullified because he had transferred from another univrsity in Cyprus during his studies.
Who else has been detained?
İmamoğlu was arrested last Wednesday along with around 100 other polticians, journalists and activists.
ADVERTISEMENTA journalists’ union said that at least a further eight journalists had also been detained from their homes on Monday. This included a photjournalist working for French news agency Agence France-Presse (AFP).
In response to the detentions and crackdown on protesters, an EU spokesperson urged the Turkish government to “uphold democratic values.”
Why are the protests considered potentially pivotal for Turkey?
It is not the first time intense anti-government protests have erupted during Erdogan’s rule. In 2013, a wave of demonstrations were triggered by plans to develop Istanbul’s Taksim Gezi Park, known as the Gezi protests.
But Demir Murat Seyrek of the Brussels school of governance told Euronews that these protests come at a sensitive time for Erdogan’s AK Party.
ADVERTISEMENT“This time protests are purely political, it’s purely about the future of democracy in Turkey,” he explained. “The AK party is not as strong as that time (during Gezi protests). This is happeneing because they really see that they can lose (in upcoming elections).”
Is disinformation circulating?
The protests have also triggered a wave of disinformation on online platforms.
A video showing a night-time procession has been widely shared on social media, claiming to show the current demonstrations in support of İmamoğlu.
A reverse-image search shows that the video in question in fact shows people gathering to see the Pope during his visit to East-Timor last September.
ADVERTISEMENTAnother video, first detected by Turkish fact-checking organisation Teyit, claims to show the chairman of İmamoğlu’s CHP party, Özgür Özel, rallying a crowd of protesters and encouraging them to clash violently against the police.
Euronews verified Özel’s speech and found that it had been deceptively cut in the video in order to take his words out of context. In reality, he urged the crowd to exercise “common sense” and use “just” methods to demand justice.
On Monday, the Elon Musk-owned X platform issued a statement claiming it “objected” to “multiple court orders” from the Turkish national telecommunications authority to block the X accounts of over 700 news media, journalists, political figures, students, and others within Turkey.
It came after reports that several oppsition figures organising the demonstrations had seen their X accounts suspended.
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