ISTANBUL: A Turkish court on Wednesday sentenced Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, a popular rival of President Tayyip Erdogan, to more than two years in prison and imposed a political ban for insulting public officials, in a ruling set to go to an appeal.
The ruling comes just six months ahead of scheduled presidential and parliamentary elections, in which Imamoglu has been mooted as a potential strong challenger to Erdogan. A main opposition presidential candidate has not yet been chosen.
Imamoglu, from the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), was tried over a speech after 2019 local elections in Istanbul when he said those who annulled the vote were “fools.” The charge carried a maximum prison sentence of four years.
Imamoglu narrowly won the municipal election in March 2019, beating a candidate from Erdogan’s ruling AK Party. After those results were annulled, he won the re-run vote comfortably. His victory ended the 25-year rule in Turkiye’s largest city by the AKP and its Islamist predecessors.
The outcome of the 2023 election is seen hinging on the ability of the CHP and others in opposition to join forces around a single candidate to challenge Erdogan and the AKP, which has governed Turkiye for two decades.
A jail sentence or political ban would need to be upheld in appeals courts, potentially extending the case beyond the election due by June 2023. Critics say Turkish courts bend to Erdogan’s will. The government says the judiciary is independent.
Turkish court orders jail, political ban for Erdogan rival
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Turkish court orders jail, political ban for Erdogan rival
- The ruling comes just six months ahead of scheduled presidential and parliamentary elections
- Imamoglu, from the opposition Republican People's Party, was tried over a speech after 2019 local elections in Istanbul when he said those who annulled the vote were "fools"
Thousands stage pro-Gaza rally in Istanbul
- Thousands joined a New Year’s Day rally for Gaza in Istanbul Thursday, waving Palestinian and Turkish flags and calling for an end to the violence in the tiny war-torn territory
ISTANBUL: Thousands joined a New Year’s Day rally for Gaza in Istanbul Thursday, waving Palestinian and Turkish flags and calling for an end to the violence in the tiny war-torn territory.
Demonstrators gathered in freezing temperatures under cloudless blue skies to march to the city’s Galata Bridge for a rally under the slogan: “We won’t remain silent, we won’t forget Palestine,” an AFP reporter at the scene said.
More than 400 civil society organizations were present at the rally, one of whose organizers was Bilal Erdogan, the youngest son of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Police sources and Anadolou state news agency said some 500,000 people had joined the march at which there were speeches and a performance by Lebanese-born singer Maher Zain of his song “Free Palestine.”
“We are praying that 2026 will bring goodness for our entire nation and for the oppressed Palestinians,” said Erdogan, who chairs the board of the Ilim Yayma Foundation, an educational charity that was one of the organizers of the march.
Turkiye has been one of the most vocal critics of the war in Gaza and helped broker a recent ceasefire that halted the deadly war waged by Israel in response to Hamas’s unprecedented attack on October 7, 2023.
But the fragile October 10 ceasefire has not stopped the violence with more than more than 400 Palestinians killed since it took hold.
