Istanbul’s mayor, whose arrest sparked a wave of mass protests across Turkey, has urged international leaders to speak out against the “deliberate dismantling” of the country’s democratic institutions.
In an article for The New York Times published on Friday, Ekrem İmamoğlu described his detention as marking a “new phase in Turkey’s slide into authoritarianism,” warning that a nation with a long democratic tradition “now faces the serious risk of crossing the point of no return.”
İmamoğlu, viewed by many as longtime leader Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s main political rival, was detained last Wednesday, triggering the largest street protests in Turkey in over a decade. On Sunday, a court jailed him pending trial on corruption charges.
His supporters, including members of the opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), argue that the charges are politically motivated and undemocratic, a claim that Erdoğan’s government rejects.
Despite a ban on street gatherings in many cities, anti-government protests have erupted nationwide, with hundreds of thousands taking to the streets.
The unrest has spread to at least 55 of Turkey’s 81 provinces, or more than two-thirds of the country, according to a tally by French news agency AFP. Around 1,900 people have reportedly been detained amid allegations of police brutality.
‘They will not be silenced’
“People are speaking out and rallying around me, a candidate who promises inclusion, justice, and the hope of a better future,” he wrote in his op-ed. “They will not be silenced.”
He continued: “For years, Mr. Erdoğan’s regime has gnawed away at democratic checks and balances — silencing the media, replacing elected mayors with bureaucrats, sidelining the legislature, controlling the judiciary and manipulating elections.
“This is more than the slow erosion of democracy. It is the deliberate dismantling of our republic’s institutional foundations.”
World's silence is 'deafening’
Turning his attention to the international community, İmamoğlu criticized the lack of firm reaction from world powers, saying that “their silence is deafening.”
A European Commission spokesperson said this week that the mayor’s arrest and the subsequent protests “give rise to the questions regarding Turkey’s adherence to its long-established democratic traditions” and urged Erdoğan to “uphold democratic values.”
The U.S. State Department said that its chief diplomat, Marco Rubio, had “expressed concerns regarding recent arrests and protests” in a call with the Turkish foreign minister.
But İmamoğlu said this was not enough.
“Washington merely expressed ‘concerns regarding recent arrests and protests’ in Turkey. With few exceptions, European leaders have failed to offer a strong response,” he wrote.
Acknowledging that recent events, including Russia’s war in Ukraine and the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria, have increased Turkey’s geopolitical importance, İmamoğlu said that “geopolitics should not blind us to the erosion of values, particularly human rights violations.”
“Otherwise, we legitimize those who are dismantling the global rules-based order piece by piece,” he concluded.
