Why is Erdogan afraid of the mayor of Istanbul?

BarcelonaEkrem Imamoglu, mayor of Istanbul and a leading opponent of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, spent his first night in Silivri prison after the government suspended him from office on Sunday. The same day, Imamoglu was chosen as his party's candidate, the Kemalist CHP, for the 2028 presidential elections, with the support of 15 million voters in an open primary. Imamoglu was arrested on Wednesday on charges of "corruption" and "terrorist activity"", the textbook charges for attacking the political opposition in Turkey. The arrest has unleashed a wave of protests unprecedented in the last decade that has already resulted in 1,133 arrests, including several journalists. The opposition has announced that the protests will continue daily, despite police repression, and after six days of protests, Erdogan made a television speech to criticize the protests, calling them a "violent movement" and accusing the opposition of "provoking" the public. "The opposition is responsible for our injured police officers, our shopkeepers' broken windows, and public property. They will be held accountable for all of this, politically in Parliament and legally in the courts. "I think if they have any respect left, they will be ashamed of the damage they have done to the country," the president harangued from Ankara, insisting on the accusations of "corruption" against the imprisoned opposition leader. Imamoglu has had significant political capital since 2019 in President Erdogan's party. The AKP forced a rerun of the elections, claiming that the votes had not been counted properly, but the blow backfired, and Imamoglu won the second blow with a resounding 54% of the vote. Erdogan projects an image of a reigning father; in contrast, Imamoglu is a more relatable figure who presents himself as a victim of a conspiracy of the elites," notes Eduard Soler, a professor at the Autonomous University of Barcelona and one of the most attentive observers of the situation in Turkey. So what danger does the mayor represent for the president? "Erdogan does not want to transform the Turkish political system into a tyrant. Imamoglu is, for him, a fearsome candidate," adds Soler. And that's why the deep state is doing everything possible to dismantle the only alternative to the ballot box that has emerged so far in the decade that Erdogan has been president, a position he assumed in 2014 after being prime minister since 2003.

Another way of doing politics

At just 54 years old, the Kemalist, who snatched the mayoralty of Turkey's economic capital from Erdogan's party, is the leading opposition figure, whose meteoric rise began as a district mayor. "He represents a different way of doing politics, based on emotions, but on positive emotions, and he has the ability to attract both secular and religious sectors, while presenting himself as someone who does not come from large families," adds Soler. Imamoglu, like Erdogan, was born in the Black Sea region. And also how Erdogan has been able to attract the sympathies of both Turkish and Kurdish nationalists.

In fact, it is still surprising that the mayor faces accusations of terrorist activity for his contacts with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), just at the time when Its leader, Abdullah Öcalan, has called for disarmamentIt's hard to imagine that the opposition leader's arrest coincided by chance with the start of the process of dismantling the Kurdish guerrilla group after 40 years of armed struggle. With this process underway, the Kurds have a more complicated situation because they are active in the common opposition front, which has brought together all those who oppose Erdogan, a clearly polarizing figure. The opposition knows its only chance is to be united, to be open, and to continue to fight back by occupying public space. Not surprisingly, the all-against-Erdogan front has come close to winning elections more than once, even in a context where, as has been demonstrated, elections are not fair. Around fifty opposition figures were arrested alongside Imamoglu, equally accused of "corruption" and "terrorism." The Turkish authorities have asked X to suspend 700 accounts.

The mayor's arrest on Wednesday has unleashed a wave of protests unprecedented in Turkey since the Gezi Park protests of 2013, which represented the main challenge to Erdogan. In this case, protests have taken place in at least 55 of Turkey's 81 provinces, with significant participation from young people and especially university students. In fact, 20 universities in the country have already announced the start of an indefinite strike to protest Imamoglu's arrest.

Evin Barış Altıntaş, of the Law and Media Studies Association, which monitors freedom of expression, has highlighted that the majority of journalists arrested during the protests are photographers and has denounced that the authorities have threatened to suspend the licenses of the media outlets that broadcast them. "The protests are large and the authorities are doing everything they can to contain them, but they continue to grow every day," she says.