Ekrem İmamoğlu, the mayor of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality and possible presidential candidate for the Republican People’s Party (CHP), was detained on two separate charges in a police raid on his home early Wednesday morning.
The police-state crackdown sparked mass protests across the country. After hundreds of municipal workers demonstrated in front of the Şişli Municipality, hundreds of students at Istanbul University organized a protest, defying Istanbul Governorship’s four-day ban on all protests.
Police reinforcements were deployed by the police chief to the security directorate in Istanbul where İmamoğlu is being detained, while crowds gathered behind the barricades to protest his detention. Thousands took to the streets in many cities, including Izmir and Ankara.
Police detained İmamoğlu on charges of “leading [a] benefit-oriented criminal organization” along with 106 people, including mayors, municipality officials, journalists and artists. İmamoğlu and seven others, including Şişli and Beylikdüzü mayors and municipal officials, were also detained on charges of “aiding the terrorist organization,” i.e., the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
The Sosyalist Eşitlik Grubu (SEG), the Turkish section of the International Committee of the Fourth International, issued a statement on X condemning the Erdoğan regime’s police state repression, which abolishes basic democratic rights, including the right to vote and be elected, and calling for the immediate release of those detained.
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2025/03/19/mmjs-m19.html