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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nImamoglu of the main opposition CHP is President Recep Tayyip Erdogan<\/a>‘s main political rival and his detention came just days before the party was expected to name him as its candidate for the 2028 presidential election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Widely seen as the strongest challenger to Erdogan \u2013 whose route to the presidency also included four years as Istanbul<\/a> mayor \u2013 Imamoglu has been targeted by a growing number of what critics say are spurious legal investigations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hundreds of police joined the pre-dawn raid on his home, Imamoglu said on X before being taken away, with the authorities then briefly blocking access to social networks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Street protests erupted despite a heavy police presence on the streets, with hundreds of officers fanning out around City Hall and closing off the central Taksim Square. The governor banned all protests for four days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “What has happened is an attempted coup,” said the leader of the CHP, Ozgur Ozel, in a speech at City Hall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Ekrem Imamoglu’s freedom to be a candidate is not being taken away, it is this nation’s freedom to elect him that is being taken away.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n The mayor’s wife, Dilek Kaya Imamoglu, called it “a targeted political operation aimed at eliminating Turkey’s future president. This is a direct blow to the nation, and we will fight”, she vowed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n READ MORE Imamoglu, the Istanbul mayor who has emerged as Erdogan\u2019s main challenger<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Thousands of people rallied in the cold in front of the city hall on Wednesday evening, yelling: “Erdogan, dictator!” and “Imamoglu, you are not alone!”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hundreds also massed earlier outside the police station where the mayor was being held.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Whenever this guy and his dirty team see someone strong, they panic and do something illegal,” said a shopkeeper who identified himself as Kurzey, referring to Erdogan and the AKP<\/a> party, in power since 2003.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “In the past, it was soldiers who carried out coups. Today it’s the politicians,” sighed 63-year-old Hasan Yildiz.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Police earlier fired teargas to disperse 400 students protesting outside Istanbul University over its decision to revoke Imamoglu’s degree, an AFP correspondent said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Turkish lira fell 14.5 percent against the dollar and the benchmark stock index BIST 100 closed 8.72 percent lower.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Today’s dip in the markets shows investors are concerned the arrest was politically motivated,” said Hamish Kinnear, a senior analyst with Verisk Maplecroft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To display this content from X (Twitter), you must enable advertisement tracking and audience measurement.AcceptManage my choices<\/p>\n\n\n\n https:\/\/x.com\/imamoglu_int\/status\/1902228598565871805?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1902228598565871805%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.france24.com%2Fen%2Flive-news%2F20250319-turkey-police-detain-istanbul-mayor-erdogan-s-main-rival<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc said Imamoglu was being investigated for the “alleged crime of aiding and abetting a terrorist organisation” \u2013 namely the banned Kurdish militant group PKK<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A second investigation, involving 100 suspects, was focused on allegations of “bribery, extortion, corruption<\/a>, aggravated fraud, and illegally obtaining personal data for profit as part of a criminal organisation”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n More than 80 people were rounded up early on Wednesday with some 20 others still sought \u2013 most from the CHP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The authorities have regularly targeted journalists, lawyers and elected politicians, notably since a failed coup in 2016.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But the crackdown has intensified in recent months, with the authorities removing more than a dozen opposition mayors and taking action against any perceived opponents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Between October and March, the authorities jailed three CHP mayors in the Istanbul area. They also removed 10 mayors from the pro-Kurdish DEM party, with most replaced by government-appointed trustees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Imamoglu was one of three more CHP mayors detained on Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “What happened this morning was nothing short of a coup against the main opposition party, with far-reaching consequences for Turkey<\/a>‘s political trajectory,” political scientist Berk Esen at Istanbul’s Sabanci University told AFP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n EU chief Ursula von der Leyen<\/a> said it was “deeply concerning” and Berlin denounced it as a “serious setback for democracy<\/a>“.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But the United States, whose President Donald Trump<\/a> has a warm relationship with Erdogan, declined to criticise the arrest directly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “We would encourage Turkey to respect human rights<\/a>, to handle its own internal framework appropriately,” State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The raid occurred just hours after Istanbul University revoked Imamoglu’s degree, amid claims it was falsely obtained \u2013 a significant move as presidential candidates are required by law to have a higher education qualification.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It came just days ahead of a key CHP meeting at which the party was to have named him its candidate for the 2028 presidential race.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “I think it was about Erdogan nipping Imamoglu’s candidacy in the bud,” Soner Cagaptay, senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, told AFP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The 53-year-old, who was resoundingly re-elected as mayor of Turkey’s largest city and economic powerhouse last year, has been named in several legal probes, with three new cases opened this year alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n (FRANCE 24 with AFP)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" ASIA \/ PACIFIC Turkish authorities detained President Tayyip Erdogan’s main political rival Ekrem Imamoglu on Wednesday on an array of charges including corruption and aiding a terrorist group just days before his expected nomination as the main opposition\u2019s presidential candidate. Thousands later spilled onto the streets of Istanbul in protest…. Continue reading Angry street protests<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
‘Escalation’ of crackdown<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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‘Nipping candidacy in the bud’<\/h2>\n\n\n\n