File image.
A Turkish court on March 23 jailed President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s main political rival, Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, pending trial.
The court said that Imamoglu and at least 20 others were jailed as part of a corruption investigation. A separate ruling on a terror-related investigation has yet to be issued.
Imamoglu, who won the mayorship of Turkey’s most populous city last year with a landslide, has denied the charges, calling them “unimaginable accusations and slanders.”
“I am standing tall, I will never bow down,” Imamoglu said on the X social network, calling on supporters not to lose hope. “We will rip away this coup, this dark stain on our democracy all together.”
Imamoglu was arrested on March 19 before he was expected to be nominated as the Republican People’s Party (CHP) main candidate for the presidency. His arrest sparked a wave of mass protests and clashes with police across the country. Hundreds were arrested, some over just social media posts.
As the decision to jail Imamoglu was being taken, members of the CHP, the main opposition against Erdogan’s ruling alliance, were preparing to anoint him as the party’s candidate for the next presidential election which is scheduled until 2028.
Hundreds of people flocked to polling stations for the election to show support after the court ruling, after protests continued overnight in major Turkish cities.
The Turkish economy took a serious hit after the arrest of Imamoglu, with the government reportedly spending nearly $12 billion defending the lira.
The government, who denied that the investigations against Imamoglu were politically motivated, warned the leader’s supporters against protests, especially given a nationwide ban on street gatherings that was extended on March 22 for four more days.
Turkey has been through several similar events since Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party first took power. However, the worsening economic crisis could lead to more serious developments, even before the upcoming presidential elections.
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its almost as if someone told sf to stop writing so much about the ukraine….
typical amerikan moron
and you are a ufcking moshlom from under the rubble?
is inferior amerikunt species upset?
yep, no.1 c*n*orship site on the web.
turkiye rejects sleazy amerikan model—rig election–massive censorship use law fare vs trump then try to assassinate him—turkiye just bans oppositiont like romania germany —in amerikan dictatorship real opposition does not exist
i*’m sorry, but “turkey” is a bird
goble
goble
amerikunts are inferior species
rubber bullets . pepper spray . erdogan’s statement is protesters are terrorism in turkey . he will claim it is protecting democracy . such are the words of election riggers . israel and the us are happy .
moshloms in distress …
c’mon … who wouldn’t like it?
chris hedges recently post a vid with a scholar from columbia university talking about this authocrats that have use many tactics to elimate everything that oppose them to grab absolute power and just happens that all align with zionism, he mentions erdogan/sisi i think mbs some others and trump is doing the same , i personally stopped beleiving “our” democracy long ago but yes there is a divition in this this us mafia that have been ruling us for a long time
more blah blah from anon
you fockking loser
all amerikunts are moron losers: “rather than found an intellectual elite amerika created a mulatto stud farm”. rute hamsum
hedges is a moron puritan racist—tiresome fascist….”amerika is the world hq of moral pretension”. paul fussell
erdogan cleared the mines on the turkey, syrian-iranian border because this would allow 10 million arabs to easily enter turkey,arabs invaded turkey without making war with help of erdogan . erdogan aimed to bring sharia law to turkey with these illegal scum arabs, destroyed the secular republic, and turned the country into a semi-sharia arab state. erdogan is the biggest dictator after saddam and mussolini. i hope erdogan will end same as saddam. erdogan is arab not turk.
erdogan has got a lot of problems. the turkish economy is falling apart. the turkish lira is toilet paper. there is growing opposition to him. syria is a running sore. the mayhem there is not confined within syria’s borders. there was a failed us orchestrated military coup against him a few years ago. his puppet jewlani has lost all legitimacy by his failure to lift a finger, or even utter a word against the zionist occupation of much of the country.
the jihadi cigar of erdogan funding all his terrorist adventures in syria lybia against armenia expanionist maritume against greece flooding europe with criminals is finally going to blow up in his face. i hope that cockroach gets ousted asap. he and hus far right mhp party ally have been a menace to world peace and stability in the whole region far too long akp and mhp are fascists and need to be dealt with as such. dont have any mercy on them they deserve none. they are c riminals
hopefully both can be ousted what turkey needs is a more moderate oriented government. its important if you ever want to stabilize syria and stop al turkeys conflicts with its neighbors. and internally with its own population and the kurds the fascist expansionist and big mouth policies of akp and mhp have made turkey a pariah state. either more moderate leadership takes over and ments the relations internally and with its neighbors or turkey will collapse.
if erdogans his apk and mhp stay in power turkey will become the next syria the cigar will blow up into erdogans face the jihadists he funded will go akbar on him very soon. it will collapse one way or another. and there will be war between the people and the dictator. likely the western part of turkey will join europe under moderate progressive leadership. the east will consoldiate in a kurdish state and the erdogan funded syrian jihadis will go headchopping in the anatolian heartland