Imamoglu jailed, vows to fight on as mass protests rock Turkey

Istanbul’s embattled Ekrem Imamoglu vowed to fight on despite being suspended as mayor and jailed on Sunday, in developments that have sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade.

Addressing vast crowds of tens of thousands of protesters who gathered outside City Hall for a fifth straight evening, Imamoglu’s wife warned the authorities they would face a reckoning.

“He will defeat you!… you will lose!” Dilek Kaya Imamoglu shouted from the platform.

“The injustice Ekrem faced… it struck a chord with every conscience. Everyone found something of themselves and the injustices they faced in what was done to Ekrem,” she said.

Just four days after his arrest in a pre-dawn raid by hundreds of police, the powerful and popular opposition mayor was on Sunday stripped of his title and shipped off to Silivri prison on the megacity’s western outskirts.

“This is not a judicial procedure, it’s a (political) execution without trial,” he wrote on X in a message through his lawyers.

Although the court decided against formalising his arrest in a separate “terror” probe, the interior ministry said he had been “suspended from office”.

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As the court process played out, the main opposition CHP party held a long-planned primary to elect Imamoglu as its candidate in the 2028 presidential election.

Opening the ballot beyond its 1.7 million members to anyone who wanted to vote, they said in the end they had registered 15 million votes for Imamoglu. “Out of a total of 15 million votes, 13,211,000 (not-party members) are solidarity votes,” they added.

‘I won’t be bowed’ 

Turkey’s authorities issued court orders for the closure of more than 700 accounts on X, targeting “news organizations, journalists, political figures, students, and others within Turkiye”, the online platform said Sunday.

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Describing the Turkish government’s move as “unlawful”, the company said it would defend the right to free speech through the courts.

France’s foreign ministry on Sunday denounced Turkey’s jailing of Imamoglu as “a serious attack on democracy”.

Observers say it was the looming primary that triggered the move against Imamoglu, widely seen as the only politician capable of challenging President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Earlier, he insisted he would fight on.

“We will erase this black stain on our democracy. I will not be bowed.”

Throughout the day, voters flocked to ballot boxes in 81 cities after the CHP opened up the poll. People turned out in such large numbers that voting was extended by an extra three-and-a-half hours.

“Whenever there’s a strong opponent (to Erdogan), they are always jailed,” said 29-year-old voter Ferhat, who declined to give his surname.

“There is a dictatorship in Turkey right now, nothing else. It’s politics in name only,” he told AFP near City Hall.

Many people expressed anger over the move against a mayor whom they had elected.

“They have literally stolen our vote. It brings tears to my eyes,” 70-year-old Sukru Ilker told AFP.

Ayten Oktay, a 63-year-old pharmacist, said there was no going back.

“Now the Turkish nation has woken up. The protests will definitely continue after this. We will defend our rights until the end,” she said.

‘A great awakening’ 

Casting her ballot early on Sunday, Dilek Kaya Imamoglu urged the country to show its support for her husband.

“We are casting our vote to support President Ekrem – for democracy, justice and the future,” she wrote on X, vowing to “never give up”.

Earlier, she met him briefly at the court with CHP leader Ozgur Ozel.

Ozel said the mayor was in good spirits.

“He said this process had led to a great awakening for Turkey, which he was happy about,” said Ozel, who put Saturday’s turnout at the Istanbul protest at more than half a million.

Riot police used rubber bullets, pepper spray and percussion grenades on the Istanbul protesters. In Ankara, they also used water cannon.

The move against Imamoglu has badly hurt the lira and caused chaos on Turkey’s financial markets, where the benchmark BIST 100 index closed nearly eight percent lower on Friday.

The unrest has spread rapidly, despite a ban on protests in Turkey’s three largest cities and a warning from Erdogan that the authorities would not tolerate “street terror”.