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ISTANBUL – Early this morning, police took İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu into custody.
A statement from the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office declared that he was taken into custody for various reasons including criminal organization, helping terror organizations, bribery, fraud and extortion.
Before his arrest, İmamoğlu, who has served as the mayor of Istanbul since 2019, was also expected to be a candidate for the early elections for president.
İmamoğlu’s political party, Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi, was on the path to legally demand an early election against President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan who is the head of the controlling political party, AK Parti.
But with the popular mayor presumed to be a presidential candidate, an investigation was started recently by the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office. The prosecutor’s probe is regarding the mayor’s university diploma on the grounds of forgery of official documents.
Prosecutors stated that any action taken based on the diploma was unfit and illegal. As a response to this investigation, İmamoğlu posted his diploma on the social media site X and also gave a statement to the prosecutor about the case.
However, on March 18, Istanbul University revoked his diploma, claiming İmamoğlu made a wrongful transfer when he changed to Istanbul University from another school.
The next day the mayor was taken into custody and public access to Instagram, YouTube, X and TikTok were cut. Many people also complain about WhatsApp’s speed being lowered as it takes some time for the messages to go through.
Also, Istanbul Governorship – which does not answer to the mayor of Istanbul, but on a chain of command that leads to the president – today banned public gatherings for the next four days.
“In order to maintain public order throughout the province and to prevent any provocative actions that may occur, all kinds of meetings, demonstrations and press releases have been banned for 4 days between 19 and 23 March by our Governorship,” the Istanbul Governorship said in a press release.
Also, public transportation to places that usually are at the center of demonstrations was cancelled.
But this did not stop many from rallying. Students from a few different universities started a protest where the police got involved. Television news showed some pushing between police and protesters, but no reports of serious injury.
Now the mayor’s political party is calling all Istanbul citizens to meet tonight for the rally “to protect the will of the people.”
On İmamoğlu’s account on X, there is a photo of a handwritten statement in Turkish posted in the early afternoon. Translated, it says, “For all the ambushes, lies and for all who take control of the will of the people, the right answer will be given by our people. I am first in the hands of God and then my people.”
Lina Köksal is a Correspondent with Youth Journalism International.
