Turkey’s government escalated its crackdown on the opposition on Thursday, detaining 37 people for social media posts about the arrest of Istanbul’s popular mayor that plunged the country into turmoil.
The government said it was searching for another 224 suspects as President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan looks to stifle protest over Wednesday’s move against Ekrem İmamoğlu, who was set to become the main opposition nominee for president this weekend.
Erdoğan has banned demonstrations in Istanbul for the rest of the week, cut access to several social media sites and slowed internet connections, according to online monitors.
A court seized the İmamoğlu family’s construction business, state media reported late on Wednesday, in connection with an investigation by the police’s financial crimes unit. State media said the mayor was arrested over a separate investigation into alleged terrorism links.
İmamoğlu has accused the government of “weaponising the judiciary” to stay in power, and his Republican People’s party (CHP) called his detention “a coup against the next president”.
Late on Thursday, Imamoğlu named Nuri Aslan, a city councillor from the CHP to serve as acting mayor, an official in his office said.
A message posted to İmamoğlu’s X account called on judges and prosecutors to “stand up and take action against a handful of your colleagues who are ruining the Turkish judiciary, disgracing us before the whole world and destroying our reputation . . . You cannot and must not remain silent”.
On Thursday evening, Özgür Özel, the main opposition leader, called on Imamoglu’s supporters to take to the streets in protest until he is freed. “We will not sit at home hungry, poor and unemployed. We will not sit at home while you keep our elected representative locked up,” he told a large crowd gathered outside city hall.
Erdoğan, in his first comments since İmamoğlu was detained, accused the opposition of “deceiving the people” by blowing the arrest out of proportion.
“The opposition’s efforts to portray its infighting or its legal problems as the most important issue of the country is the height of hypocrisy,” he said in televised comments. Erdoğan said it will be up to the courts to determine if the allegations are valid, but “they know full well that all of it is true”.
The lira and benchmark Bist 100 index regained some lost ground on Thursday after the central bank deployed billions of dollars to shore up the currency and the market regulator eased share buyback rules, following a markets tumble prompted by İmamoğlu’s arrest.
The central bank raised its overnight lending rate by 2 percentage
points to 46 per cent to steady the lira, citing risks to inflation. The bank’s benchmark one-week repo rate remains unchanged at 42.5 per cent.
Turkey’s most popular politician, İmamoğlu handily won re-election as mayor of Istanbul last year, when voters punished Erdoğan’s ruling party for its handling of a years-long cost of living crisis.
Erdoğan, who has towered over Turkish politics since 2002, has steered the nation down an increasingly authoritarian path, particularly after he survived a 2016 coup attempt.
But years of fraught relations with Europe had begun warming in recent weeks as US President Donald Trump’s pivot to Moscow reinforced Ankara’s importance as a Nato ally.
Human Rights Watch said the detention was part of “a pattern of politically motivated investigations and prosecutions of politicians and activists”.
“It’s a blatant political manipulation of the judiciary and of detention powers. This show of power . . . will have the chilling effect of silencing dissent,” said Emma Sinclair-Webb, Turkey director for HRW.
Authorities have detained hundreds of people in recent months, including activists, journalists, politicians, academics and businesspeople who have been critical of Erdoğan’s rule.
After winning elections in May 2023, Erdoğan regained some market confidence by reversing years of unorthodox monetary policy and naming former Merrill Lynch banker Mehmet Şimşek as finance minister.
Some investors are waiting to see if that approach continues. As long as the more orthodox policy remains, “we expect the outlook for Turkey’s assets to remain constructive”, said Giulia Bellicoso, markets economist at Capital Economics.
Turkey’s justice minister has claimed the judiciary remains independent and warned that criticism of its actions was “extremely dangerous”.
Polls show İmamoğlu consistently outperforms Erdoğan in a hypothetical race for the presidency. Elections are not scheduled until 2028, but the CHP has said that naming the Istanbul mayor as its presidential candidate now should compel parliament to call a snap election.
