Turkey's protests over Istanbul mayor grow into ‘fight about democracy'

The Guardian

22-03-2025

When demonstrators gathered ­at Istanbul's city hall last week in outrage at the arrest of mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, 26-year-old Azra said she was initially too scared to defy a ban on gatherings. As protests grew on university campuses and in cities and towns across Turkey, she could no longer resist joining.
'I saw the spark in people's eyes and the excitement on their faces, and I decided I had to come down here,' she said with a grin, standing among tens of thousands that defied a ban on assembly to fill the streets around city hall on Friday night. Despite the crowds, Azra feared reprisals and declined to give her full name. Many demonstrators were masked in a bid to defy facial recognition ­technology and fearing the teargas or pepper spray sometimes deployed by the police. Others smiled and took ­selfies to celebrate as fireworks illuminated the night sky.
The arrest of the mayor of Turkey's largest city in a dawn raid last week was a watershed moment in the country's prolonged shift away from democracy. Opponents of president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan fear it is a move to ­sideline the sole challenger capable of defeating him in upcoming elections, expected before 2028.
İmamoğlu and more than 100 other people including municipal officials and the head of the mayor's construction firm were served ­detention orders and accused of embezzlement and corruption – charges the mayor denies. He also denies terrorism charges levelled at him over collaboration with a leftwing political coalition prior to local elections last year, which saw major losses for Erdoğan's Justice and Development party (AKP).
Justice minister Yılmaz Tunç attempted to rebuff any suspicion the charges against İmamoğlu and ­others from the opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) were ­politicised. 'Attempting to associate judicial investigations and cases with our president is, to say the least, an act of audacity and irresponsibility,' he said.
Within days, what began as protests in response to İmamoğlu's detention has grown into something more. 'This is bigger than İmamoğlu. It's about a fight for democracy, law and equal rights,' said Azra as demonstrators massed around her.
The Turkish president has long sought to retake Istanbul from opposition control, fuelling protesters' joy at defying a ban on gatherings in the city where Erdoğan began his ­political career as mayor. Standing outside a metro station as hundreds of cheering people poured into the street, breaking into anti-government chants and banging on the escalators, another protester, named Diler, called the demonstrations 'a response to the pressure that has built up over years'.
'There are problems with the ­economy, with education, with the health ­system,' she said in a nod to the ­economic ­crisis that has seen the cost of ­living soar. 'We are fed up with this government.'
Supporters of the mayor said 300,000 people joined the demonstration in Istanbul on Friday night, while video showed protesters taking to the streets and clashing with the police in major towns and cities across the country. Turkish interior minister Ali Yerlikaya said 343 ­people were detained across nine cities after taking part in demonstrations.
Turkish authorities ratcheted up their attempts to quell the growing protests, including blocking traffic across two bridges leading to city hall in Istanbul and locking down several thoroughfares nearby with lines of riot police.
Erdoğan voiced his increasing ­displeasure at calls to demonstrate by the head of the opposition, saying: 'Turkey is not a country that will be on the street – it will not surrender to street terrorism.'
Despite the domestic outrage at İmamoğlu's detention, the international response remained muted. The clearest reaction was ­financial, with estimates that the Turkish central bank spent a record $11.5bn propping up the lira the day after İmamoğlu's arrest as investors fled and the ­currency plunged in value.
Reactions elsewhere were far less impactful. A spokesperson for the UN secretary general said they hoped 'the normal rules for due process will be followed', while US state ­department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said Washington 'will not comment on the internal decision-making ­processes of another country'.
US president Donald Trump and Erdoğan spoke by phone just days before İmamoğlu's arrest amid reports the Turkish leader is seeking a meeting at the White House in the coming months.
US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff told rightwing pundit Tucker Carlson in an interview that Trump and Erdoğan's conversation was 'transformational', adding 'I think there's just a lot of good, positive news ­coming out of Turkey right now.'
'The international climate has Erdoğan feeling very confident,' said Gönül Tol, an analyst with the Washington-based Middle East Institute.
'The president of the United States is undermining democracy there, meaning the US is looking inward. He just doesn't care what other foreign autocrats are doing to their people. Those things are really impacting a global climate where autocrats think they can do whatever they want.'
European leaders previously quick to criticise Erdoğan, such as French president Emmanuel Macron, have yet to voice objections to events in Turkey amid expectations they could increasingly look to Ankara to supply peacekeepers in Ukraine.
'With Trump's return to the White House and his shift towards Russia on Ukraine, the Europeans are panicking and trying to boost defence,' said Tol. 'In this climate where Europe feels it has to defend itself against Russia alone, there's more talk about engaging Erdoğan.'
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen became the highest-ranking official to offer any criticism, stating Turkey 'must protect democratic values, especially the rights of elected officials'.
Soner Cagaptay, a biographer of Erdoğan and an analyst at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said such statements were not likely to prompt any change in policy.
'There are unlikely to be any meaningful actions to follow; there will be no sanctions or disinviting Erdoğan to summits, declining to include Turkey in future planning. There will be no concrete repercussions, because of the way Turkey has positioned itself in this new global arena as an important power,' he said.
The CHP is expected to push ahead with declaring İmamoğlu its ­candidate for president this weekend, after a symbolic primary vote. Those ­outside city hall were insistent the Istanbul mayor should remain the opposition's candidate, even if this means his running from prison.
Cagaptay said despite the lack of international criticism, the push to ­nullify İmamoğlu could still ­backfire. Erdoğan was briefly jailed in the 1990s while mayor of Istanbul, ­galvanising his ­support and fuelling his run for national politics.
'He entered jail as a mayor and exited as a national hero,' said Cagaptay.
'Erdoğan is betting this won't happen [now] due to state capture, his control of institutions and the media, and he's not worried about international criticism.'