« Idiots »: How Erdogan took the target Imamoglu

The comment caused a sentence that was appealed, but it was only the beginning of a storm of legal investigations and accusations that ended in prison on Sunday, in anticipation of a lawsuit, on accusations of corruption, which were severely criticized as politicized and anti -democratic.

« We are faced with a big tyranny, but I want you to know that I will not give up, » said, recorded on his phone and published in X, describing how hundreds of police officers gather in front of his home. « I will continue to fight against this man, » said the 54-year-old man, referring to 71-year-old Erdogan.

The government denies the opposition’s allegations that Erdogan has played a role in legal action and says the judicial system is independent.

Imamoglu’s political battle began in 2019 when he headed the opposition’s breakthrough victory after years of failures. He won the municipal elections in Istanbul in March, but authorities canceled the result in May due to technical details such as unsigned results on the results and unauthorized officials with newsletters.

The court threats began in June, just before the re -vote, when Erdogan said he would bear consequences for the alleged insult of the governor of the Black Sea province of Ordu during a campaign there.

However, Imamoglu prevailed decisively in the re -voting, taking 54% of the vote against 45% of the candidate of the ruling party of justice and development (PSR). Thus, one of Erdogan’s biggest blows for his 16 years in power.

The judicial threats became more serious in 2021, when prosecutors requested a four-year sentence in prison for Imamoglu on charges of insulting election officials, on the basis that he called them « idiots » in speech just after the March 2019 election was canceled.

The following year, the court sentenced him to two years and seven months in prison in the insult case, which caused protests by thousands to support the mayor.

Legal battles

Imamoglu’s court battles unexpectedly remind those of Erdogan himself, imprisoned for four months in 1999 for reciting a poem considered to be an anti -Slow when he was mayor of Istanbul. Two years later, he created the Party of Justice and Development, which came to power in 2002.

Longtime Columnis Fikret was said that Erdogan was one of several examples of politicians recovering from legal woes. He set as an example of Suleiman Demirel, Bulent Edzhevit and Nedzhmetin Erbakan, all prime ministers after a ban on politics and imprisonment after a military coup in 1980 « Even if the government prevented Imamoglu to be a website, it cannot be able to keep it from politics. »

The legal attack has accelerated in the last two years. In June 2023, a court began to hear a case against Imamoglu in a auction case related to his time as mayor of the Istanbul district of Bailikdusu between 2014-2019.

Despite the new court battle, Imamoglu was re -elected in March 2024 as part of a huge victory throughout the country for his Republican People’s Party (RNP) and other opposition parties – again noting the largest election defeat for Erdogan and his party.

At the end of last year, the last chapter began to unfold. Imamoglu and many other representatives of the opposition were affected by widespread legal repression, which led to a loss of their election positions.

At the beginning of this year, he dismissed the allegations in an attempt to influence the judicial system after criticism of lawsuits against municipalities governed by the opposition.

In February, prosecutors raised a third indictment against Imamoglu for speeches criticizing the prosecutor of the city, asking him to convict him of seven years in prison for insulting a civil servant. Finally last week, police detained Imamoglu on accusations of corruption and supporting a terrorist group. Four days later, he was arrested, igniting the largest protests in the country for over a decade.