1 of 3 | Thousands of supporters of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu took to the city’s streets in protest overnight to demand his release after being arrested on corruption charges. Photo by Erdem Sahin/EPA-EFE
March 29 (UPI) — More than two million supporters of jailed Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu took to the city’s streets in protest demanding his release after being arrested on corruption charges.
The demonstration, organized by Imamoglu’s opposition Republican People’s Party, or CHP, claimed more than 2.2 million people attended protests to support the mayor of Turkey’s largest city.
Imamoglu, who was re-elected during the country’s elections last year and is seen as the main opposition to Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan‘s ruling government, was detained earlier this month on corruption charges.
Imamoglu and his party have called the charges politically-motivated and an attempt by Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party to erode support for the mayor. The JDP has governed Turkey since 2002, with Erdogan serving two terms as prime minister followed by two terms as president.
“In the early hours of March 19, I was detained by dozens of armed police officers. It was a political operation — not a legal one — timed just days before CHP’s presidential primary,” Imamoglu wrote on his English-language X account.
“But what followed was far more powerful than the repression itself: people from all across Türkiye stood up. From Istanbul to Rize, citizens took to the streets, joined our party, and reminded us all that democracy lives in the will of the people,” he wrote
Imamoglu shared an aerial photo showing a large crowd at the demonstration on his Turkish-language X account, as well as posts with video of the protest. The video was accompanied by the caption in Turkish and translated to English by Google reading “you are so beautiful, Istanbul!”
Turkey has maintained the country’s judiciary is independent and that Imamoglu’s arrest is not an attempt to quell his political opposition.
Approximately 1,900 people have been arrested, however, in protests since Imamoglu was first arrested on March 19. Among them, nearly two-dozen journalists and photojournalists are have been detained while reporting on the protests.
Imamoglu’s lawyer was also detained and later released, according to reports.
CHP leader Ozgur Ozel told reporters Saturday he now expects the number of arrests to dissipate.