Turkey: Mass Protests After Istanbul Mayor’s Arrest

The police ban did not work: tens of thousands of people took to the streets on Wednesday and Thursday to speak out against the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, considered the main political rival of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whom the opposition accuses of using increasingly authoritarian methods of rule.

In Istanbul, protests took place at universities, in front of the mayor’s office, near the police headquarters, and outside the headquarters of the Imamoglu party, despite the government imposing a strict four-day ban on protests. There were clashes with security forces; some roads and subway lines in Istanbul were closed. There were also internet outages, with access to social media and major online platforms restricted.

Together with Imamoglu, more than a hundred people were arrested, including politicians, journalists, businessmen, and activists; another 37 people were detained by security services for publishing “provocative” posts on social networks about Imamoglu’s arrest.

Imamoglu, 53, has been mayor of Istanbul since 2019 and was re-elected last year. In 2019 and 2024, he beat a conservative candidate backed by Erdogan both times. Imamoglu is considered one of the few anti-Erdogan politicians capable of uniting under his figure a variety of opposition forces, including conservatives, secular circles, and the Kurdish minority.

Imamoglu’s arrest came days before he was scheduled to participate as a favorite in his Republican People’s Party (CHP) primaries, in which he would likely have been nominated as a “candidate for the upcoming presidential election” in 2028.

Certainly, the arrest of Imamoglu and his supporters will cause a host of new international political problems for the Erdogan regime, which has been criticized for authoritarianism by the European Union.