, the Birgün daily reported.){kind=link}
A defiant Ekrem İmamoğlu, the popular mayor of İstanbul, has called on the government to ensure that his conviction in a politically charged trial is upheld, in order to relieve growing pressure on the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), the Birgün daily reported.
İmamoğlu’s remarks came at a news conference at the Beşiktaş Municipality in İstanbul on Wednesday. two days after its mayor, Rıza Akpolat of the CHP, was detained as part of a bid-rigging investigation.
Beşiktaş Belediyesi’nde basın mensuplarının gündemle ilgili sorularını yanıtlıyorum. https://t.co/TMyva9AAAx
— Ekrem İmamoğlu (@ekrem_imamoglu) January 15, 2025
Akpolat’s detention followed the arrest and removal of another CHP mayor, Ahmet Özer of İstanbul’s Esenyurt Municipality, on terrorism-related charges in late October.
İmamoğlu, seen as the strongest political rival of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, said the ongoing crackdown on his party is actually aimed at sidelining him in politics and called for his 2022 conviction to be upheld so that the pressure on his party is eliminated.
“I challenge those who are trying to make life a headache for me. If your goal is to [eventually] target the İstanbul Municipality and me, there’s no need for you to make my colleagues and their families suffer or to come up with excuses. The appeal of my conviction, including a political ban, is pending. Since your target is me, at least be honest here. Uphold my conviction, leave the others in peace,” said İmamoğlu.
The mayor was sentenced to more than two years in prison and barred from politics in December 2022 for allegedly insulting members of Turkey’s Supreme Election Board (YSK).
İmamoğlu appealed his sentence and the political ban, which he called politically motivated.
The possibility of a higher court upholding the sentence will effectively rule him out of running against President Erdoğan in the next presidential election slated for 2028. Erdoğan has recently hinted that he wants to run for re-election.
According to İmamoğlu, his party is under “judicial harassment” by prosecutors who act on orders from the government to paralyze the municipalities’ operations and discredit the mayors.
The 53-year-old ended the yearslong Justice and Development Party (AKP) rule in İstanbul when he defeated the AKP’s mayoral candidate twice in the local elections of 2019. He won a rerun election by a larger margin than the first, which had been canceled due to supposed irregularities.
İmamoğlu was re-elected İstanbul mayor in the March 2024 local elections, again leaving the AKP candidate far behind.
In last year’s local elections, the CHP emerged as the leading party for the first time in 47 years, securing 37.7 percent of the vote, maintaining control of key cities and securing substantial gains in other regions, while the AKP came in second, garnering only 35.4 percent.
The CHP’s election victory led to widespread concerns that Erdoğan might resort to measures that would hinder the operations of the opposition municipalities or discredit them in the eyes of the public in retaliation for his party’s election loss.
Over the past months, the CHP municipalities have also been hit by investigations on accusations of irregular spending and unpaid debts to the government.
In yet another measure targeting the opposition municipalities, the government introduced measures to cut public funds to municipalities and their subsidiaries to offset their outstanding debts, according to a presidential decree published in the Official Gazette in late November.