Arrest warrant against Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu issued

A few days before his planned appointment as presidential candidate of the largest opposition party in Turkey, the Mayor of Istanbul and important opponent by Head of State Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Ekrem İmoğlu, was arrested. This was confirmed by the CHP party, who officially wanted to appoint Imamoglu on Sunday as its candidate for the next regular presidential election in 2028.

The Istanbul public prosecutor said that two procedures were involved in the investigation against İmamoğlu. On the one hand, it is the allegation of criminal activities in connection with the city administration tenders in which 100 people are involved. These include journalists and business people. In the second case, Imamoglu and six other people are accused of supporting the prohibited Kurdish workers' party PKK, which is classified by Turkey as a terrorist organization.

The governor of the province of Istanbul also imposed a four-day demonstration, meeting and news lock until Sunday. After the arrest, the Internet observation organization NetBlocks reported that access to several online platforms in Turkey was restricted. This included X, YouTube, Instagram and Tiktok.

Imamoglu released a video in the morning on platform X, in which he spoke of hundreds of police officers at the front door. “We are in the face of a great tyranny,” he wrote. But he won't give up.

CHP boss Özgür Ozel spoke of an attempted coup and a crucial moment for the future of Turkish democracy. The people should be prevented from determining the next president themselves. He called on the 1.7 million party members to take part in the party-internal election of the CHP top candidate despite the arrest on Sunday.

The day before, İmamoğlu had been revoked his university degree by the Istanbul University. Such is a prerequisite for the candidacy for the presidency. The background of the cancellation should be an illegal university change. According to the decision, the academic degree was now revoked 27 other people. İmamoğlus lawyer Kemal Polat said the dpa that Imamoglu could not compete as a presidential candidate if all legal processes were exhausted against the decision.

IMAMOğLU has been Mayor Istanbuls since April 2019. He was re -elected for the office last year.