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Türkiye's Erdogan Committing Political Suicide by Jailing his Main Rival? [1]

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Date: 2025-03-24

At the start of this month, I did a diary on what looked to be the dawn of a hopeful new era of peace and stability for Türkiye and its restive Kurdish minority. But then less than three weeks later, it seems that the increasingly autocratic President Erdogan is now intent on flushing all that hope for a better future down the proverbial toilet.

Perhaps emboldened by our own increasingly lawless would-be autocrat, Erdogan evidently thought last Wednesday was the perfect time to launch a sweeping crackdown against his political rivals in the opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), including the near-dawn arrest of Istanbul’s popular mayor, Ekrem Imamoglu, who has already won three elections to that post against Erdogan’s hand-picked candidates, and is widely seen as the person most likely to succeed him as President in 2028

Somewhat ironically, one of the charges leveled against Imamoglu was supposed support for the outlawed Kurdish militant PKK party that had already agreed to disband as part of the recent peace process — though if Erdogan thought these arrests would somehow help consolidate his hold on power, he seems to have been gravely mistaken. From Reuters:

The detention last Wednesday of Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, Erdogan's main political rival, has triggered the biggest street protests in Turkey in more than a decade. On Sunday, a court jailed him, pending trial, on corruption charges that he denies. Imamoglu's main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) and its supporters say the charges against him are politically motivated and undemocratic, which Erdogan's government denies. … Addressing hundreds of thousands of people in front of the Istanbul Municipality headquarters in Sarachane again, CHP leader Ozel repeated a call to boycott media, brands, and stores he called pro-Erdogan, adding all charges against Imamoglu were baseless, unfounded and without evidence. "Whoever Tayyip Erdogan unjustly puts in jail, this square is defending them, for democracy and for Turkey," said Ozel, who also called for continued protests as crowds waved flags and chanted slogans calling for the government to resign. ... Moments after Ozel finished his speech, police fired pellets and tear gas, and used water cannons to disperse demonstrators in Istanbul, while detaining several people. In Ankara, protesters stood in front of trucks carrying water canons and asked police to let them march in peace. ... Rights groups and European countries said Imamoglu's arrest marked democratic backsliding and criticised police intervention. Germany said it made Turkey's pursuit of EU membership, which it has targeted for decades, sounded "increasingly hollow". A meeting of the EU-Turkey Joint Parliamentary Committee was postponed on Monday after the EU side "concluded that current circumstances are not conducive" to holding the meeting, it said in a statement.

And from the BBC:

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