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A Turkish court formally arrested the main challenger to the country’s longtime leader Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, threatening to escalate a crisis that has ignited mass protests and financial turmoil.
The court ruled that Istanbul mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu should remain behind bars ahead of a trial on corruption allegations, state-run Anadolu news agency said. The opposition said it will appeal against the ruling. The court continues to weigh a prosecutor request to hold him in pretrial detention on a separate terrorism investigation, Anadolu said.
The arrest marks the first time under Erdoğan’s rule that such a senior member of the main opposition Republican People’s party (CHP) has been detained, and is seen by critics as further evidence that the strongman president is driving Turkey further down the path of authoritarianism.
İmamoğlu called the court decision a “black stain on democracy” in a post on X. “I invite my 86mn fellow citizens to run to the ballot box and declare their struggle for democracy and justice to the whole world,” he said.
On Sunday, the CHP, Turkey’s second-biggest party, began balloting in a nationwide primary to nominate İmamoğlu as its presidential candidate.
The popular mayor had announced he would formally seek the presidency just weeks before he was detained.
The move against İmamoğlu has set off the largest opposition protests in more than a decade in Turkey, which has been ruled by Erdoğan since 2003. A broad crackdown across Turkish society in recent months has also seen arrests of journalists and academics.
Police arrested 323 people during a fourth day of demonstrations, interior minister Ali Yerlikaya said on Sunday. That brought the number of detained protesters at marches in cities around the country to 666 since Friday.
The government has banned political protests in Istanbul, the capital Ankara and the third-largest city of Izmir, and said people suspected of travelling to participate in protests would be barred from entering and exiting Istanbul.
Investors dumped Turkish assets amid concerns about the government’s commitment to a recovery programme for the $1.3tn economy.
İmamoğlu, who was taken in by police on Wednesday, denies wrongdoing in both probes and has accused Erdoğan of “weaponising the judiciary” to maintain his two-decade grip on power. Erdoğan rejects that accusation and on Saturday said Turkey is a democracy with rule of law.
İmamoğlu was elected mayor of Turkey’s largest city in 2019 and has emerged as Erdoğan’s most serious rival, outperforming him in surveys of voters who are unhappy with the government’s handling of a long-running cost of living crisis and the president’s strongman style of rule.
Erdoğan was re-elected to a five-year term in 2023 and is not allowed to stand again due to constitutional term limits. His allies have called for the national charter to be revised so that he can run again.
The CHP said İmamoğlu would be kept in a prison in the town of Silivri, about 80km west of Istanbul. The penitentiary holds a number of other politicians and activists who have been critical of Erdoğan.
