Steven Sahiounie, journalist and political commentator
On March 23, Ekrem Imamoglu, Mayor of Istanbul, was sent to prison awaiting trial on terrorism and corruption. He had been arrested on March 19 at his home. Before the arrest, he had answered questions at the prosecutor’s office concerning his alleged relationship with the PKK, an internationally recognized terror group who have killed 30,000 people over three decades of attacks. He is also accused of various corrupt abuses of his office.
On March 22, Imamoglu posted on his X account: “There is no salvation alone; either all of us together or none of us.”
The accusations and arrest came just days ahead of a scheduled Republican People’s Party’s (CHP) party primary where Imamoglu was to be nominated as the party’s candidate for the next Presidential elections slated for 2028. Although President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has held office for over 20 years, and the current constitution would prevent him from running again, he had voiced plans to change the constitution so that he could run again.
Pollsters and political commentators in Turkey have said that if the election were held now, Imamoglu would beat Erdogan. There has been speculation that an early election might be called for, and many feel certain that Imamoglu’s arrest and subsequent imprisonment are politically motivated and the charges are baseless.
Links to the PKK are political suicide in Turkey. The Kurdish separatist terror group does have supporters, but the Mayor of Istanbul is not one of them.
For the last four nights, Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, Adana, Antalya, Konya, and several other locations have seen large street protests in support of Imamoglu, and in condemnation of politically motivated arrests. The government closed streets on Wednesday, banned demonstrations, and cut off the internet to prevent activists from coordinating protests and locations. Regardless of those measures, the Turkish people took to the streets in defiance and support of the rule of law and democracy.
On March 22, 343 people were arrested in massive protests ahead of the court decision early Sunday morning.
On March 22, Erdogan said, “The days of going out into the streets, taking left-wing organizations, extremists, and vandals with you… are now behind us.”
The Turkish police used pepper spray, water cannons, tear gas, batons, barricades, and rubber bullets to control the protesters, many of whom were young people concerned about their future.
Fahrettin Altun, Erdogan’s Director of Communications, criticized the CHP on March 22, posting on X, “Türkiye will not fall for this game, will not surrender to the streets, and the democratic legal order will be protected at all costs.”
“All forms of violence are bad. Democracy is always our compass,” Altun concluded.
X, Elon Musk’s social media platform, has suspended accounts belonging to the opposition in Turkey. Although Musk said he bought X to restore free speech, his platform has acquiesced to Turkish requests to suspend accounts and ban content.
The majority of the suspended accounts were university activist accounts. The street protests have been observed to be overwhelmingly the youth of Turkey, with many asking for the President to resign and chanting, “Rights, law, justice”,
The Interior Ministry said coordinated action between cyber and security authorities led to the arrest of 54 suspects related to social media accounts. Since 2022, Turkish social media law has given the government vast power to suppress content.
According to the 2022 Council of Europe report, Turkey remains the leader in the number of prisoners in Europe.
Turkey accounted for over a third of all prisoners in Europe, having experienced a surge of 369 percent in its prison population between 2005 and 2022.
According to the Human Rights Association’s Prison Commission, political prisoners in Turkey face are often prevented from parole because the government manipulates the parole boards.
Erdogan’s AKP government has allocated 13.7 billion lire to construct 12 new prisons in 2024. Turkey had 405 prisons in October 2023.
After the July 15, 2016 coup attempt, Erdogan jailed tens of thousands of people on terrorism charges, despite being only critical of the government, and innocent of all criminal activity.
Turkey remains the biggest jailer of journalists in the world, according to journalists and human rights organizations.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Turkey released 90,000 prisoners convicted of crimes but specifically excluded the release of any political prisoners, including human rights defenders, journalists, political leaders, academics, and lawyers targeted by Turkey’s overly broad “anti-terror” legislation.
According to the European Court of Human Rights, the presence of military judges in the Turkish State Security Court violates the fair trial principles set out in Article 6 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.
On January 22, 2024, the Platform for an Independent Judiciary in Turkey released a statement on the rule of law in Turkey. The report described a systemic pattern of disregard for fundamental principles of fair trial by Turkish courts at every level. The report called for immediate attention to the principles of justice, human rights, and democracy.
Republican People’s Party, CHP, was established in 1923 under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Pasha, the founder of the Republic of Turkey, and known to the nation as ‘Ataturk’.
In 1927, Ataturk gave a speech highlighting the reasons for the dissolving of the Ottoman Empire. He stated that he entrusted the Turkish youth to protect the young Republic.
The founding philosophy of the Republic of Turkey was a secular state.
“The party considered the separation of religion and state in state and national affairs as one of the most important principles,” said Ataturk.
Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party, AKP, is from an Islamic tradition and became prominent in the elections held in 2002 when it received 34% of the votes, then in 2007 it reached 47% and the party received almost 50% of the votes in the 2011 elections.
AKP has installed its Islamist and sectarian supporters in key positions in the state institutions, and using its ruling position, especially in the police services, intelligence services, prosecutors, and judges, it imposed punishments on some segments of the society, which believed in democracy and the democratic order.
The future of Turkey hangs in the balance. The voters want a return to a secular and democratic government. The next election will be a course correction in the Turkish journey.
Steven Sahiounie is a two-time award-winning journalist.
