Another wave of restraint in Istanbul, in the crisis that triggered the largest protests of Turkey in the last decade
Manifestation in Istanbul for the support of Ekrem Imamoglu, Saturday, March 29, 2025. Credit: ED Jones / AFP / Profimedia
The Turkish authorities detained 47 more members of the Istanbul municipality on Saturday for corruption accusations, NTV television and other publications, due to an increasing legal repression against the opposition and the mayor sent behind the bars, reports Reuters.
Ekrem Imamoglu, the mayor of Istanbul and the main political rival of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was sent behind bars, in March, waiting for a trial in which he is concerned with corruption and complicity with a terrorist group. The mayor denied all the accusations, and his arrest has triggered mass protests, economic turbulence and wide accusations of politicization of the general system.
The NTV reported, on Saturday, that the authorities have also detained the Secretary General of the Municipality, the head of Cabinet of Imamgolu, the president and the vice-president of the water-canal administration (ISKI), as well as a department head of ISKI.
According to the television, the wife of Imamoglu's counselor, Murat Ongun, and other officials from the municipality or from its subordinate institutions, were also detained.
In total, at least 150 other people have happened since the detention of Imamoglu, although the exact balance is unclear.
Ekrem Imamoglu, who believes that the files are politically manufactured and are meant to eliminate Erdogan's electoral opponents, claims that the detained people have done nothing wrong and urged the citizens to fight “those who rot our state”.
“What happened? Didn't you manage to fill in your hollow file?” He said in an X post, claiming that the restraints aimed to “fill the empty files with lies and slanders.”
The Republican People's Party (CHP) of Imamoglu, the main opposition formation, accused the justice system of following the orders of President Erdogan, claiming that the arrest of numerous CHP mayors is part of a wider campaign to neutralize the elected officials before any future national election.
