Tuesday 25 / March / 2025
The wife of Istanbul's embattled mayor Ekrem Imamoglu has addressed a huge crowd of people who were protesting for the fifth consecutive night since his arrest.
Dilek Kaya Imamoglu told tens of thousands of demonstrators outside City Hall in Istanbul that the government of long-time President Recep Tayyip Erdogan would pay for targeting the popular opposition figure.
"He will defeat you!... you will lose!" she said.
"The injustice Ekrem faced... it struck a chord with every conscience. Everyone found something of themselves and the injustices they faced in what was done to Ekrem," she added.
France slams jailing of Imamoglu as 'attack on democracy'
The arrest and imprisonment of the now-suspended Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu and other political leaders "constitutes a serious attack on democracy," France's Foreign Ministry said in a statement Sunday night.
The ministry pointed out that Turkey, which has been led by Recep Tayyip Erdogan for over 20 years, had promised to protect the rights of opposition figures.
Freedom of expression and the right to peaceful assembly are cornerstones of the rule of law, the statement added, highlighting that Turkey — as a Council of Europe member and candidate to join the European Union — had "freely entered into commitments in this area."
"The respect of these commitments is a central element of our relations as well as relations between Turkey and the European Union," the Foreign Ministry said.
15 million vote in Turkey's opposition primary
Karl Sexton with AFP, AP | Felix Tamsut | Wesley Dockery Editor
Istanbul City Hall says 15 million people voted in an opposition primary to select the city's mayor Ekrem Imamoglu as candidate.
In cities across the country, supporters headed to symbolic ballot boxes set up to allow non-CHP party members the chance to express their solidarity with Imamoglu.
Voting was extended by three-and-a-half hours because of the massive turnout.
"Out of 15 million votes, 13,211,000 expressed their solidarity" with Ekrem Imamoglu, the imprisoned opposition figure now suspended as Istanbul's mayor, it said.
The long-planned primary was organized by the main opposition CHP party to choose Imamoglu as its presidential nominee, with him as the only candidate on the ballot.
Imamoglu was elected mayor of Istanbul in 2019 and triumphantly re-elected last year.
From Silivri Prison, the arrested mayor praised the symbolic referendum. In a post on X, Imamoglu said the people had told Erdogan that "enough is enough" and that "the nation will give this government a slap it will never forget."
https://p.dw.com/p/4s9ug
