Court arrested and imprisoned İmamoğlu: A new stain on Turkish democracy

İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality (İBB) Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu was arrested on March 23rd by an İstanbul Court on duty on charges of “bid rigging, recording personal data, bribery and establishing an organization of interest”. İmamoğlu was not arrested on charges of aiding the PKK within the framework of the “urban reconciliation” with Kurdish politicians but nevertheless sent to Marmara Prison in Silivri because he was arrested on corruption charges. The İstanbul Chief Republic Prosecutor’s Office appealed the court’s decision to release him on terrorism charges.

The Interior Ministry suspended İmamoğlu, Resul Emrah Şahan the mayor of İstanbul’s Şişli district and Mehmet Murat Çalık, mayor of Beylikdüzü district from their mayorships, and appointed Şişli District Governor Cevdet Ertürkmen as trustee in place of Şahan, who was arrested on charges of aiding a terrorist organization. İstanbul Governor’s Office announced that deputy mayoral elections in IBB and Beylikdüzü will be held on March 26 among the members of the city council.

Thus, CHP’s İmamoğlu, who had won the mayorship of the city of 16 million people three times against the ruling AKP, was removed from the mayoralty with a judicial operation of March 19  and another major obstacle was removed for İmamoğlu not to run against President Tayyip Erdoğan.

Reactions and “solidarity ballot boxes”

Despite the court ruling, hitting a new blow to democratic life in Türkiye, angry citizens started voting in the ballot boxes set up by the CHP across the country as of the morning hours. The CHP administration had previously set up preliminary ballot boxes for the CHP members to determine their candidate for the next presidential election -scheduled for May 2028, but after the mass detention of İmamoğlu and his colleagues decided to put “solidarity ballot boxes” next to the preliminary boxes for those non-CHP-member citizens as well.

Claiming that the solidarity ballot boxes received 10 times more citizens than the number of their members (announced as 1 million 650 thousand), CHP leader Özgür Özel said, “The people are repelling the taking away of the freedom to determine the presidential candidate by judicial and oppressive means from the solidarity ballot boxes as if they were repelling a coup with their bare hands.  This is an incredibly important popular movement.”

Özel: mafia methods are being used

CHP leader Özel argued that İmamoğlu was arrested because he had defeated Erdoğan before and would defeat Erdoğan in the next election, and accused the government of using Italian Mafia methods. Özel said, “It is as if the Italian Mafia methods were used to say, ‘If you run against me, I will have you arrested that day’.”

Minister of Justice Yılmaz Tunç, on the other hand, said that it was wrong to “characterize a judicial investigation as a ‘political investigation’” and “to draw legal evaluations to political grounds” and that “the process should be expected to be completed in all aspects” and asked for “restraint” in comments.

Ankara Metropolitan Mayor Mansur Yavaş who is also a strong candidate on the CHP list to run against Erdoğan but joined the tanks of İmamoğlu after the March 19 detentions, called the arrest court ruling as “Shameful for our legal system. It is shameful for our country.”

DEM Party Co-Chairs Tulay Hatimoğulları and Tuncay Bakırhan (nowadays mediating between the government and the PKK) said, “The will of millions of citizens has been politically interfered with. This understanding continues to harm the internal peace of Türkiye.“

IYI Party leader Müsavat Dervişoğlu, who has shown solidarity with the CHP since the beginning of the crisis, said that the” Ruling made by the court in the name of the Turkish nation cannot be against the conscience of the nation. The court is not the property of the judge.”

New media restrictions

Meanwhile, with a midnight warning, Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK) Chairman Ebubekir Şahin banned live TV broadcasts of speeches made in favor of İmamoğlu from Saraçhane Square in İstanbul, because they sounded “like the spokesperson of illegal organizations”. Since the arrest of İmamoğlu and his colleagues on March 19, Saraçhane Square, where IBB headquarters is located, has been the center of protests. Özel condemned pro-AKP TV channels for not covering the protests in Türkiye and threatened a boycott if they continued to do so.

Tens of thousands of citizens reportedly marched to Saraçhane Square in response to Özel’s call to “let the people who cast their votes come”, despite the closure of roads leading to the area and the law on demonstrations and marches announced by the governor’s office.