A supporter of jailed İstanbul mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu was stabbed Thursday during an attack on an opposition campaign booth in the northern Turkish province of Trabzon, local officials said, the Kısa Dalga news website reported.
The incident took place at around 2:30 p.m. local time in Trabzon’s Ortahisar district, where the Republican People’s Party (CHP) had set up a stand as part of a national petition drive demanding İmamoğlu’s release from prison. İmamoğlu, widely viewed as the leading rival to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, was detained on March 19 and subsequently arrested on corruption charges his supporters call politically motivated.
Haluk Batmaz, the CHP’s district chair in Ortahisar, said a young member of the party’s youth branch was attacked with a knife by a man while staffing the booth. “This was a brutal assault on our call for freedom,” Batmaz said in remarks carried by local media. “There were no police present at the scene.”
Mustafa Bak, the CHP’s provincial leader in Trabzon, confirmed the stabbing and said the victim was wounded in the leg.
The booth was part of a broader campaign launched by the CHP under the slogan “Freedom for Ekrem İmamoğlu,” which has drawn widespread participation since his arrest. The attack comes amid heightened political tensions and continued demonstrations across the country, with students and opposition groups protesting what they describe as a sweeping government crackdown on dissent.
Authorities have not yet announced whether a suspect has been arrested in connection with the incident.