The mayor of Istanbul, Ekrem Imamoglu arrested. The local media report it by citing components of its staff. «Hundreds of police officers arrived at my door. I rely on my nation. The police broke into my house, “I Imamoglu wrote on his channel X. The mayor, exponent of the center left, one of the main rivals of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, according to local sources, It was at the center of a corruption investigation.
The arrest order for Imamoglu was issued on the basis of the accusations of “extortion, corruption, fraud and auction disturbance by a criminal organization” and for “Aiding and abetting towards the PKK terrorist organization”report various Turkish media. In the police raids this morning, in addition to Imamoglu they were about one hundred people arrested close to himincluding the well -known Ismail Saymaz journalist.
“We are faced with a great tyranny, but I want you to know that I will not give up,” said the mayor believed to be the main rival of Erdogan, in the message on X with which he announced his arrest. The CHP, the largest opposition party in Turkey with which Imamoglu was twice elected as Mayor of Istanbul, defined the arrest as “a coup d’état against the national will”.
Yesterday the University of Istanbul had canceled the IMAMOGLU degree, obtained in the early 90s, considering it false. The mayor recently announced his intention to want to apply for the presidency in the next electionsscheduled in 2028, and one of the requirements to be president of the Republic in Türkiye is having obtained a degree. In recent months, the mayor has been put under investigation for several accusations, including “attempt to influence the judiciary”, while in 2022 he had been sentenced to over two years in prison for insult to public officials, in a sentence that also forbidden him to participate in political life but is still the subject of investigation by the Court of Appeal that has not yet confirmed it.