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Turkey is cracking down on large protests triggered by the arrest of Ekrem İmamoğlu, Istanbul Mayor and rival to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Turkish authorities have arrested several journalists at their homes, a media workers’ union said on Monday, amid escalating protests triggered by the imprisonment of Ekrem İmamoğlu, the mayor of Istanbul and main rival to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.The Disk-Basin-Is union said at least eight reporters and photojournalists were detained in what it said was an “attack on press freedoms and the people’s right to learn the truth”.”You cannot hide the truth by silencing journalists!” the union wrote on the social media platform X, while calling for their immediate release.There was no immediate comment from Turkish authorities concerning the detentions.Since becoming president in 2014, Erdoğan has consistently targeted journalists. The NGO Reporters Without Borders said last year that during Erdoğan’s decade in power, 77 journalists have been convicted of “insulting the president”, while five have been killed. At least 85% of national media is controlled by the government, the NGO said.The detention of İmamoğlu — a member of the Republican People’s Party (CHP) and arguably the most popular figure among the opposition — is widely seen as a political move to remove a major challenger to Erdoğan from the next presidential race in 2028.Imamoglu detained on corruption chargesİmamoğlu was detained on Wednesday, sparking the largest wave of street demonstrations in Turkey in more than a decade, deepening concerns over democracy and the rule of law. On Sunday, a court formally arrested İmamoğlu and ordered him jailed pending a trial on corruption charges.İmamoğlu was jailed on suspicion of running a criminal organisation, accepting bribes, extortion, illegally recording personal data and bid-rigging — accusations he has denied. A request for him to be imprisoned on terror-related charges was rejected although he still faces prosecution.Government officials strongly reject accusations that İmamoğlu’s arrest is politically motivated, insisting that Turkey’s courts operate independently.The interior ministry announced that İmamoğlu had been suspended from duty as a “temporary measure”.In primaries on Sunday, İmamoğlu was endorsed as the CHP’s presidential candidate. He was backed by 1.7 million CHP members and 13 million non-party members. İmamoğlu was elected mayor of Istanbul in March 2019, in a major blow to Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party, which had controlled the city for a quarter-century.Erdogan’s party pushed to void the municipal election results in the city of 16 million, alleging irregularities. The challenge resulted in a repeat of the election a few months later, which İmamoğlu also won, this time by a much higher margin — extending his lead from 14,000 votes to more than 800,000. The mayor of Istanbul retained his seat following local elections last year, during which the CHP made significant gains against the Justice and Development Party.
