By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
ISTANBUL, TURKEY (Worthy News) – The anti-Hamas mayor of Istanbul, Turkey’s largest city, has been suspended and jailed ahead of a corruption trial despite tens of thousands of protesters demanding his freedom.
Ekrem Imamoglu’s detention sparked outrage. His wife, Dilek Kaya Imamoglu, told tens of thousands of demonstrators outside City Hall in Istanbul that the government of long-time president Recep Tayyip Erdogan would pay for targeting the popular opposition figure.
“He will defeat you!… You will lose!” she said. “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 added.
Imamoglu is seen as the main rival of Turkish President Erdogan. His arrest was closely watched in Israel as he called Hamas a “terrorist organization,” unlike Erdogan, who views it as a liberation group.
The arrest and imprisonment of the now-suspended Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu and other political leaders “constitutes a serious attack on democracy,” France’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement Sunday night.
The ministry pointed out that Turkey, which Recep Tayyip Erdogan has led for over 20 years, had promised to protect the rights of opposition figures.
Freedom of expression and the right to peaceful assembly are cornerstones of the rule of law, the statement added, highlighting that Turkey — as a Council of Europe member and candidate to join the European Union — had “freely entered into commitments in this area.”
EU RELATIONS
“The respect of these commitments is a central element of our relations as well as relations between Turkey and the European Union,” the Foreign Ministry said.
Istanbul City Hall says 15 million people voted in an opposition primary to select Ekrem Imamoglu, the city’s opposition mayor, as a candidate for the 2028 presidential elections.
In cities across the country, supporters headed to symbolic ballot boxes set up to allow non-Republican People’s Party (CHP) members the chance to express their solidarity with Imamoglu.
Voting was extended by three-and-a-half hours because of the massive turnout.
“Out of 15 million votes, 13,211,000 expressed their solidarity” with Ekrem Imamoglu, the imprisoned opposition figure now suspended as Istanbul’s mayor, it said.
The main opposition CHP party organized the long-planned primary to choose Imamoglu as its presidential nominee, with him as the only candidate on the ballot.
Imamoglu was elected mayor of Istanbul in 2019 and triumphantly re-elected last year. From Silivri Prison, the arrested mayor praised the symbolic referendum. In a post on social media platform X, Imamoglu said the people had told Erdogan that “enough is enough” and that “the nation will give this government a slap it will never forget.”
Copyright 1999-2026 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
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