Turkey Ousts and Jails Istanbul Mayor, Who Was Expected to Run for President

 

Turkey Ousts and Jails Istanbul Mayor, Who Was Expected to Run for President

 

Supporters of the mayor, Ekrem Imamoglu, said that corruption charges against him were a ploy to hobble the main political rival of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

 

By Ben Hubbard and Safak Timur

Reporting from Istanbul

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/23/world/middleeast/turkey-ekrem-imamoglu-istanbul.html

March 23, 2025

 

The mayor of Istanbul was jailed pending his trial on corruption charges and removed from office on Sunday, hobbling a potential contender in Turkey’s next presidential election and the top rival of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

 

The mayor, Ekrem Imamoglu, was arrested at his home on Wednesday, four days before he was set to be named the presidential candidate of Turkey’s political opposition. He has denied the accusations against him, which Mr. Erdogan’s opponents have called a ploy to hinder a popular politician’s presidential bid.

 

The court ordered that Mr. Imamoglu be jailed on accusations of corruption pending a trial. State prosecutors have accused him of leading a criminal organization and overseeing bribery, bid rigging and other financial misdeeds at City Hall.

 

Prosecutors also accused him of supporting terrorism through his political coordination with a pro-Kurdish group during local elections last year. The court chose not to order his detention on those charges, but said the issue remains under investigation.

 

On Sunday afternoon, the Interior Ministry removed Mr. Imamoglu from office.

 

Protesters turned out for demonstrations late Sunday in support of Mr. Imamolgu in Turkey’s largest cities. Many thousands of people gathered in front of City Hall in Istanbul carrying Turkish flags and hand written placards making fun of Mr. Erdogan or calling for justice.

 

ImageA large group of people pushing against police with riot gear.

Supporters of the jailed Istanbul mayor clashing with police during a protest in Istanbul on Sunday.Credit...Umit Bektas/Reuters

“I totally believe these are bogus charges,” said Emre Can Erdogdu, a university student in Istanbul. “We entirely lost our trust in the government.”

 

He said he feared for the future of the country.

 

“A person who could be the next president is now out of politics,” he said. “It is not just about Istanbul. It is about all of Turkey.”

 

Detention alone may not prevent Mr. Imamoglu from running for president, but he faces other roadblocks. The day before his arrest, his alma mater, Istanbul University, voided his diploma, citing improper procedures in his transfer to the school in 1990. Turkey’s Constitution stipulates that the president must have completed higher education. The mayor said before he was detained that he would contest the ruling.

 

Mr. Imamoglu, who has been elected mayor three times since 2019, faces a slew of other court cases as well, including some that could temporarily bar him from politics.

 

In a post on X, the mayor called on Turks to stand together against “this black stain on our democracy.”

 

Of his detention, he said: “I stand tall. I will never bow.”

 

Critics of Mr. Erdogan, who has dominated Turkish politics for more than two decades, have long accused him of using state power to undermine his rivals. But, they say, arresting a presidential contender to undermine him in the race before it begins represents a new level of authoritarianism.

 

Some European leaders have criticized the mayor’s arrest and called on the Turkish government to uphold the rule of law. Senior U.S. officials have said little.

 

Steve Witkoff, President Trump’s Middle East envoy, made no mention of the mayor’s detention in an interview with the former Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson that was posted on X on Saturday. But he said that Mr. Trump had recently spoken with Mr. Erdogan. The call was not made public by the White House at the time.

 

“There is just a lot of good, positive news coming out of Turkey right now as a result of that conversation,” Mr. Witkoff said, without providing further details.

 

The court also jailed dozens of other people on Sunday, according to the state-run Anadolu news agency, including several of Mr. Imamoglu’s associates. At least four of his aides were jailed on corruption charges and two others for supporting terrorism, the state-run news media reported.

 

Two Istanbul district mayors were also jailed and removed from their posts, bringing the total removed by the government in recent months to four. All of the ousted mayors are from Mr. Imamoglu’s party, which won 26 of Istanbul’s 39 districts in local elections last year.

 

Despite Mr. Imamoglu’s detention, Turkey’s main opposition party, the Republican People’s Party, or C.H.P., went ahead with a primary on Sunday to designate him its presidential candidate. Party members voted around the country, and the party called on nonparty members to cast symbolic ballots to support the jailed mayor.

 

At one polling station in a neighborhood that Mr. Erdogan’s party won in last year’s elections, about 20 people stood in line to cast symbolic votes for Mr. Imamoglu.

 

“I am here for our freedom. I am here for my children,” said Hilal Dukmeler, a 26-year-old nurse. “If we keep silent on this one, our republic will not survive.”

 

She said Mr. Erdogan’s party had failed to offer services and considered Mr. Imamoglu a threat.

 

“This is show of power of the government,” she said. “They realized that Imamoglu has the power too and they tried to beat him.”

 

Mr. Erdogan’s current presidential term, his second, expires in 2028. While the Constitution limits presidents to two full terms, he could legally run again if Parliament called for early elections, cutting short his second mandate.

 

Many people in Turkey expect that to happen. If it does, it is possible that Mr. Imamoglu, 54, could be barred from the race. Mr. Erdogan, 71, has not said whether he would run, but he has no clear successor and many people in Turkey expect him to seek another term.

 

Mr. Imamoglu’s detention has rattled markets, and Turkey’s stock market and the value of its currency have fallen significantly since Wednesday.

 

His removal could disrupt the administration of Turkey’s largest city. The city government employs more than 100,000 people and oversees a number of companies that build housing, run public transportation and carry out infrastructure projects.

 

Large protests against Mr. Imamoglu’s detention have broken out nightly across Turkey, despite the government’s efforts to stop them. Public demonstrations have been banned in the country’s three largest cities, social medial access has been restricted and major transit hubs have been closed to hamper the ability of protesters to gather in public squares.

 

On Saturday, the Interior Ministry said that 343 people had been arrested while protesting, and the office of Istanbul’s governor, who is appointed by Mr. Erdogan, said travelers “likely to participate in unlawful protests” would be prevented from entering the city.

 

Gulsin Harman contributed reporting.

 

Ben Hubbard is the Istanbul bureau chief, covering Turkey and the surrounding region. More about Ben Hubbard

 

Şafak Timur covers Turkey and is based in Istanbul. More about Safak Timur