Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is facing criticism over what critics say is a crackdown on opposition political figures after police detained his main rival, Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, on charges of corruption and links to terrorism.
The Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office issued detention orders for İmamoğlu and 106 other prominent political figures. The suspects are alleged to have committed offenses including bribery, embezzlement, bid rigging, aggravated fraud and unlawful acquisition of personal data.
İmamoğlu was accused of collaborating with the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party, a Kurdish nationalist group that has led an insurgency against the Turkish state and is considered a terrorist group by Turkey, the U.S. and the European Union.
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Critics remain suspicious of the arrest of a prominent opposition figure, especially at a time when Erdoğan’s ruling Justice and Development (AKP) party has suffered losses in local elections in the past year.
"İmamoğlu's arrest is no coincidence. He is Erdoğan’s political nemesis, and his likely candidacy to run against him for the presidency has been weighing on Erdoğan’s mind," Sinan Ciddi, nonresident senior fellow on Turkey at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, told Fox News Digital.
Ciddi warned that the detention of political adversaries represents the end point of Turkey as a democracy, claiming that free and fair elections as well as peaceful transfer of power are no longer possible.
Turkish officials pushed back on accusations that the wave of arrests was politically motivated.
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A spokesperson from the Turkish Embassy in Washington referred Fox News Digital to a statement from the Justice Ministry.
"Attempting to associate judicial investigations and cases with our President is, to say the least, an act of audacity and irresponsibility," wrote Minister of Justice Yılmaz Tunç.
"In our country, the separation of powers—legislative, executive, and judicial—is a fundamental principle. The judiciary does not take orders from anyone," the statement added.
İmamoğlu thanked global leaders and members of the European Parliament in a post on X and vowed to continue fighting for Turkey’s democracy.
"I stand resolute, entrusting myself not only to the 16 million residents of Istanbul but to the 86 million citizens of Türkiye and all who uphold democracy and justice worldwide. I stand firm in my fight for the fundamental rights and freedoms."
İmamoğlu, member of the secular Republican People’s Party (CHP), was elected mayor of Istanbul in 2019 and re-elected in 2023. In both elections, he defeated Erdoğan-backed AKP opponents. He was seen as the likely nominee of the CHP to face Erdoğan in the next presidential election scheduled for 2028, or sooner if elections are called early.
Authorities placed a ban on public demonstrations for four days in an attempt to quell any growing backlash to the arrests. Özgür Özel, chair of the CHP, Turkey’s main opposition party, addressed large demonstrations gathered in Istanbul and called for mass protest to oppose what the opposition sees as a flagrant violation of democratic norms.
In response to the arrest, Istanbul University annulled İmamoğlu's diploma, a move that would bar him from running for president, according to Turkish law, which requires the president to have a university degree. İmamoğlu said the act was beyond the university’s authority and a troubling sign of political interference in academia.
Soner Cagaptay, senior fellow at the Washington Institute, said in a post on X that Erdoğan was originally catapulted into political stardom as then-mayor of Istanbul in 1999 when he was imprisoned on charges of inciting religious hatred, only to see his popularity rise and become leader of Turkey since 2003.
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