Status: 12/15/2022 9:43 p.m
Tens of thousands show solidarity and call for the judgment against the mayor of Istanbul to be lifted. Although Imamoglu is threatened with a political ban, Erdogan’s rival is combative. His future is still open.
Tens of thousands of people have protested in Turkey against the sentencing of a rival of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. A court sentenced the popular mayor of Istanbul, Ekrem Imamoglu, to more than two years in prison on Wednesday and banned him from political activities. The demonstrators waved Turkish flags in front of the city administration headquarters and chanted slogans against Erdogan’s AK party.
It was the first time that the six Turkish opposition parties had come together for a public rally after forming an alliance against the conservative Islamic President Erdogan just over a year ago. According to Turkish media, hundreds of people also took to the streets in Trabzon in north-eastern Turkey – the hometown of the Istanbul mayor.
Imamoglu speaks of “unlawful judgement”
The social democrat Imamoglu addressed the crowd at the Istanbul rally: “I’m (…) not afraid of their wrongful verdict,” said the 52-year-old CHP politician at a rally, adding: “I have no judges, who protect me, but I have 16 million Istanbul and our nation behind me.”
Imamoglu concluded his speech with the words “Everything will be fine” – the slogan of his successful campaign for mayor in 2019. Imamoglu himself attributed the verdict to his political achievements. “Sometimes no success goes unpunished in our country.”
The convicted mayor of Istanbul, Imamoglu, appears combative at a rally.
Image: dpa
The verdict was issued – about six months before the presidential election – for insulting officials. In the 2019 Istanbul local elections, Imamoglu called the polling officers “fools”. The verdict has yet to be confirmed by an appeals court.
His lawyer immediately announced an appeal. As long as the appeal process is ongoing, Imamoglu can remain in office as mayor. However, the appeal could be negotiated at any time and prevent a possible candidacy for the presidential election next year.
New impetus for the opposition
The Istanbul mayor is considered an important candidate for the opposition in the upcoming elections. So far, the alliance has not been able to agree on a single candidate to challenge Erdogan’s two-decade rule in the upcoming elections.
CHP leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu, who is considered the opposition’s likely joint candidate, called the court decision “a slap against the nation by the judiciary” and promised “not to budge an inch.” The controversial verdict could give new impetus to the difficult cooperation of the heavily fragmented opposition in Turkey. Not least because of the high inflation and the bad economic data, Erdogan is under heavy pressure.
“Blow to Democracy”
Initial polls show that Wednesday’s decision could backfire on Erdogan. Accordingly, even many voters of his Islamic-conservative AKP consider the verdict against the mayor to be “politically” motivated. According to the Metropoll research institute, 28.3 percent of AKP voters believe that the case “has something to do with politics” and 17.6 percent believe it is “slander”.
The US State Department said it was “deeply concerned and disappointed” at the attempted removal of one of Erdogan’s greatest rivals from the political arena. Germany described the verdict as a “heavy blow to democracy”. France called on Turkey to “reverse its slippage from the rule of law, democracy and respect for fundamental rights”.