Türkiye. Imamogle, arrested, the most important rival of Erdogan in the presidential election

The Turkish police arrested the mayor of Istanbul, the Imamogle, the expected opposition candidate in the next presidential election. In an interview with tvn24.pl, OSW expert Karol Wasilewski emphasizes that imamogle is the most serious rival of Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the fight to rule Turkey, and arrest him was not accidental now.

The imprisonment of the imamogle was arrested on Wednesday as part of an investigation into alleged corruption and connections with terrorism. The Anatolia press agency announced that in total prosecutors issued an arrest warrant of about 100 people. The authorities closed several roads around Istanbul, and also introduced a ban on organizing demonstration for four days to prevent protests that may explode after arrests.

Reuters, citing Netblocks monitoring, among others Cybersecurity, he said that the authorities Turkey They limited access to many social media platforms on Wednesday, including X, YouTube, Instagram and Tiktok.

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Erdogan's rival arrested

The imamogle comes from the main opposition republican People's Party (CHP). He is a popular mayor of Istanbul considered a key rival of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the fight for Turkey.

As in an interview with tvn24.pl, Karol Wasilewski, head of the team of Turkey, the Caucasus and Central Asia at the Center for Eastern Studies (OSW), imamogle is “the most serious rival of Erdogan and is a politician with high charism and the ability to mobilize crowds.” – For a long time he expected the authorities to try to make him make him be difficult, unless he would exclude him from the start in future presidential elections, and the situation is currently heading in this direction – he emphasizes.

The next presidential election in Turkey should be planned in 2028, but the organization of accelerated elections is not excluded. – That is why the opposition, seeing the increasing tightening of the screw by the authorities, for example in the form of arrests of activists, convened the primaries on the next Sunday. They were to show millions of support for the imamogle and in this way to politically block the authorities all proceedings aimed at him – says OSW expert explaining why the mayor was arrested now. – Because did Erdogan, who referred to “the will of the people” so many times in his political career, could disregard her? That was thinking (standing behind the decision to arrest the imamogle – ed.) – adds Karol Wasilewski.

The Imamogle screen became the mayor of Istanbul, the largest and most populous Turkish city in 2019. In a recording published on Wednesday on the website X, he emphasized that he was not going to give up. – I am sad to say that a handful of people who are trying to steal the will of the people, sent (to my house – ed.) The police, security forces, entangling them in this unlawful action – he said. – Hundreds of policemen were sent to the door of my house, a house of 16 million inhabitants of Istanbul – he added.

Detention of the opposition in Turkey

The arrest of imamogle took place a day after the Istanbul University canceled his diploma of graduation. According to the authorities, there was “irregularities” during the procedure for moving to the university from another university several dozen years ago. This action prevents the politician from starting in the presidential election, because according to Turkish law, having a university diploma is a condition for starting in elections.

Earlier, in mid -February, Turkish police has detained ten representatives of local authorities in Istanbul from the CHP party, accusing them of terrorism. Officials were detained in connection with suspected appointment in the municipal authorities of allegedly related to Kurdish militants. Critics emphasized at the time that the government, by detaining opposition representatives, wants to discredit the CHP and the mayor of the Imamogle Ekrem, which could stand up to the future fight for the chair of the president of the country.

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