Two district mayors in İstanbul along with other city officials, businessmen and journalists were among more than 100 people detained on Wednesday as part of an investigation targeting İstanbul’s popular Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu.
As well as İmamoğlu, Şişli district Mayor Resul Emrah Şahan, Beylikdüzü Mayor Murat Çalık, İstanbul Municipality Secretary-General Can Akın Çağlar, all from the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), and İmamoğlu’s press advisor, Murat Ongun, were taken into custody.
As he was being detained, Ongun appealed for support on X, apparently not knowing that İmamoğlu was also being detained.
Murat Ongun, İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu’s press advisor
“They think they can silence us. I entrust Ekrem İmamoğlu to the Turkish nation. Protect, watch over and support him. They cannot defeat the nation,” he said.
İmamoğlu is seen as the strongest political rival of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan if he seeks another term as president in the next election slated for 2028.
The list of detainees also includes İstanbul Planning Agency President Buğra Gökçe, İstanbul Municipality Deputy Secretary-General Mahir Polat, İmamoğlu advisor Necati Özkan, singer Ercan Saatçi and businessman Murat İlbak, the owner of the CNBC-e, a Turkish free-to-air television channel operated by NBCUniversal, Comcast and İlbak Holding since June 2024. Five other members of the İlbak family were also among the detainees as well as the station’s editor-in-chief, Servet Yıldırım.
The detentions took place as part of two separate investigations led by the İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office into alleged corruption and terrorist links.
Most of the 106 people cited in the probes belong to the CHP, with critics saying it was a huge blow for the opposition.
The prosecutor’s office cited charges including bribery and extortion, saying İmamoğlu was the leader of a “criminal organization” as part of one of the investigations.
In the second investigation, seven of the detainees including İmamoğlu and Şişli Mayor Şahan are accused of aiding a terrorist organization — the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK) — through the “urban consensus model,” an election strategy used in last year’s local elections, according to the statement from the prosecutor’s office.
It refers to the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party’s (DEM Party) approach to candidate selection in Turkey’s western cities in preparation for the March 31, 2024 local elections.
The party aimed to engage a wide range of community stakeholders, not just its members, by forming alliances with other political parties as part of this strategy. The DEM Party supported mayoral candidates whose nominations were decided in consensus with other parties. In some areas certain CHP candidates were elected with the backing of the DEM Party.
İmamoğlu was elected for his second term in last year’s local elections, dealing a heavy blow to Erdoğan’s aspirations to take back Turkey’s economic powerhouse from the opposition.
Ten CHP municipal officials, including two deputy mayors from the Kartal and Ataşehir districts, were arrested last month on terrorism charges due to accusations related to the “urban consensus model.”
Wednesday’s detentions follow months-long pressure on the CHP that resulted in the arrest and removal from office of its three mayors in İstanbul as well as the launch of multiple investigations into İmamoğlu and other CHP officials.
İmamoğlu’s detention also came one day after İstanbul University revoked his degree, which could bar him from running for the presidency since a degree in higher education is a prerequisite for running in elections under the Turkish Constitution.
The CHP will hold a preliminary election on Sunday to elect its presidential candidate. İmamoğlu was expected to be selected as the party’s candidate for the next election.
CHP Chairman Özgür Özel, who described İmamoğlu’s detention as “a coup against our next president,” told Turkish media later on Wednesday that Sunday’s vote would still be held as planned.
“What has happened is an attempted coup,” Özel said in a speech at İstanbul City Hall.
“Ekrem İmamoğlu’s freedom to be a candidate is not being taken away. It is this nation’s freedom to elect him that is being taken away.”
His words were echoed by the mayor’s wife, Dr Dilek Kaya İmamoğlu.
“This is a targeted political operation aimed at eliminating Turkey’s future president. This is a direct blow to the nation, and we will fight back,” she said.
In 2022 İmamoğlu was sentenced to almost three years in prison and banned from political activities for “insulting” election officials in Istanbul, in a sentence that he has appealed, the outcome of which is still pending.