Istanbul, 23 Mar

A court formally arrested the mayor of Istanbul and key rival to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday and ordered him jailed pending the outcome of a trial on corruption charges.

Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu was detained following a raid on his residence earlier this week, sparking the largest wave of street demonstrations in Turkiye in more than a decade. It also deepened concerns over democracy and rule of law in Turkiye.

His imprisonment is widely regarded as a political move to remove a major contender from the next presidential race, currently scheduled for 2028.

Government officials reject accusations that legal actions against opposition figures are politically motivated and insist that Turkiye's courts operate independently.

The prosecutor's office said the court decided to jail Imamoglu on suspicion of running a criminal organization, accepting bribes, extortion, illegally recording personal data and bid-rigging. A request for him to be imprisoned on terror-related charges was rejected.

Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said Sunday that 323 people were detained the previous evening over disturbances at protests. Largely peaceful protests across Turkiye have seen hundreds of thousands come out in support of Imamoglu.

However, there has been some violence, with police deploying water cannons, tear gas, pepper spray and firing plastic pellets at protestors in Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir, some of whom hurled stones, fireworks and other missiles at riot police.

A primary to endorse Imamoglu and “solidarity ballots"

The formal arrest came as more than 1.5 million members of the opposition Republican People's Party, or CHP, began holding a primary presidential election to endorse Imamoglu as its presidential candidate.

With Imamoglu as the sole candidate, the primary — announced last month — was largely a symbolic show of support.

The party has also set up symbolic ballot boxes nationwide to allow people who are not party members to express their support for the mayor. Large crowds gathered early Sunday to cast a “solidarity ballot”.

“This is no longer just a problem of the Republican People's Party, but a problem of Turkish democracy,” Fusun Erben, 69, said at a polling station in Istanbul's Kadikoy district. “We do not accept our rights being so easily usurped. We will fight until the end.”

Speaking at a polling station in Bodrum, western Turkiye, engineer Mehmet Dayanc, 38, said he feared that “in the end we'll be like Russia, a country without an opposition, where only a single man participates in elections”.

In a message posted on social media, Imamoglu called on people to show “their struggle for democracy and justice to the entire world” at the ballot box. He warned Erdogan that he would be defeated by “our righteousness, our courage, our humility, our smiling face”.

Domestic and international supporters slam the court's action

“Honestly, we are embarrassed in the name of our legal system,” Ankara Mayor Mansur Yavas, a fellow member of Imamoglu's CHP, told reporters after casting his vote, criticising the lack of confidentiality in the proceedings.

“We learned from television pundits about the allegations that even lawyers did not have access to, showing how politically motivated this whole ordeal has been,” he said.

The Council of Europe, a Europe-wide body that focuses on promoting human rights and democracy slammed the decision to imprison the mayor.

“We deplore the decision to place Mayor of Istanbul Ekrem Imamoglu in detention, and demand his immediate release,” said Marc Cools who heads the grouping's congress of local authorities.

Soner Cagaptay, director of the Turkish Research Programme at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and an author of a biography of Erdogan, said with Imamoglu's arrest, Erdogan was taking an extreme measure against his key opponent.

“Erdogan is determined to do whatever it takes to end Imamoglu's career,” he said. “(Imamoglu) beats Erdogan in every imaginable presidential poll.”

Cagaptay said the international environment — where the European Union appears keen to maintain Turkiye's favour amid security threats from Russia, and the United States is unconcerned by other countries' internal affairs — allows Erdogan to proceed without fear of international scrutiny.

The EU is compliant and the United States is facing inwards," Cagaptay said.

Imamoglu's long history of criminal cases

Before his detention, Imamoglu had already faced multiple criminal cases that could result in prison sentences and a political ban. He was also appealing a 2022 conviction for insulting members of Turkiye's Supreme Electoral Council.

Earlier in the week, a university nullified his diploma, citing alleged irregularities in his transfer from a private university in northern Cyprus some 30 years ago. The decision effectively bars him from running for president, since the position requires candidates to be university graduates. Imamoglu had vowed to challenge the decision.

Imamoglu was elected mayor of Turkey's largest city in March 2019, in a major blow to Erdogan and the president's Justice and Development Party, which had controlled Istanbul for a quarter-century. Erdogan's party pushed to void the municipal election results in the city of 16 million, alleging irregularities.

The challenge resulted in a repeat of the election a few months later, which Imamoglu also won.

The mayor retained his seat following local elections last year, during which the CHP made significant gains against Erdogan's governing party.