Turkey holds the mayor of Istanbul, the main rival of Erdogan

Turkish police arrested the powerful mayor of Istanbul on Wednesday, Ekrem Imamoglu, as part of a corruption investigation, a move that his opposition party CHP considered a “coup d'etat”.

A key figure within the CHP, Imamoglu is the main political rival of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and his detention comes a few days before being appointed party candidate for the 2028 presidential election.

Largely considered to be the strongest challenger in Erdogan, Imamoglu had to face a series of legal affairs with political motivation.

While the reports of its detention emerged, Turkey briefly closed access to social networks and hundreds of police surrounded the Town Hall and closed Taksim, the authorities prohibiting all the demonstrations for the next four days.

Despite this, several hundred people gathered near the headquarters of the Istanbul police where the imamoglu was taken, singing with anger “the government resigns!” An AFP correspondent said.

This decision also sparked chaos on the financial markets, the Turkish LIRA plunging a historic hollow of 39 liras against the dollar and the Bist 100 reference scholarship would have made it possible by 6.9%.

With the offline Exchange website, it was not possible for AFP to immediately check the figures.

– “Nothing less than a coup” –

“The use of force to usurp the will of the people or for obstruction is a coup d'etat,” said the chief of the CHP, Ozgur Ozel, on X, his words taken up by many other observers.

“What happened this morning was nothing less than a coup against the main opposition party, with large -scale consequences for the political trajectory of Turkey,” the political scientist Berk Esen told the University of Sabanci in Istanbul.

The RAID occurred only a few hours after the University of Istanbul revoked the diploma of Imamoglu, in the midst of the allegations which it was falsely obtained. In Türkiye, presidential candidates must have a higher education qualification.

Imamoglu's wife Dilek said the police showed up around 3:00 am (0000 GMT) and took her several hours later.

“The police came right after the Sahur and he started to prepare,” she said in a video published by the municipality, referring to the meal before Ramadan resumed at dawn.

“They left the house around 7:30 am,” she said.

A declaration from the Office of the Prosecutor of Istanbul cited accusations, in particular corruption and extortion, alleging that Imamoglu was the head of a “criminal organization” and that 100 suspects had been gathered.

This decision seemed to be in relation to a probe on the alleged “rigging of tend” of Imamoglu which was opened in 2023.

But local reports, notably from the Anadolu press agency, said that it was also linked to a separate investigation for having pretended to help the Kurdistan workers' party (PKK), saying that he was one of the seven detainees.

– “they panic” –

In the streets of Istanbul, little were ready to comment and those who refused to give their name.

“Whenever this guy and his dirty team see someone strong, they panic and do something illegal,” said a merchant from Istanbul, referring to Erdogan and his AKP governing party.

“They are bad, but amateurs,” he added.

Shortly after the police raid, access to the social media platforms was limited, said the Watchdog of London, Netblocks.

“Live Metrics Show #Turkey has restricted access to several social media platforms, including X, Youtube, Instagram and Tiktok; the incident comes as the mayor of Istanbul Ekrem Imamoglu and dozens of others are detained in the events described by the opposition as a coup ''”, he said.

The governor's office immediately prohibited all demonstrations until March 23.

The CHP had planned several demonstrations, including one for Wednesday afternoon for the dismissal of the Imamoglu diploma, which the mayor promised to challenge in court.

The party was also due to hold a primary on Sunday during which Imamoglu was to have been officially appointed its candidate for the 2028 elections.

The 53 -year -old man, who was re -elected in a resounding way as mayor of the largest city in Turkey last year, was appointed in several legal probes, with three new cases only this year.

In 2022, he received two years and seven months in prison and prohibited political activities to “insult” elections in Istanbul, a penalty he appealed.