Mayor of Istanbul arrested in massive crackdown by Turkish government

On Wednesday March 19th, the Mayor of Istanbul, Ekrem İmamoğlu, was arrested along with around 100 other politicians from the CHP (Republican Peoples' Party). This came a day after Imamoğlu's university diploma was revoked. İmamoğlu is the strongest candidate for the presidency against Turkey's president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and having a university diploma is mandatory for presidential candidates.

Soon after İmamoğlu was arrested, the governor of Istanbul banned any protest in the city for four days. Metro lines and roads were closed, and bandwidth restrictions were reported on social media platforms including Whatsapp and Telegram. Although the CHP initially hesitated to call people to openly go onto the streets, tens of thousands of people defied the ban and took to the streets in a number of cities, especially in Istanbul. University students went on the streets and crossed the police barricade.

At a big demonstration outside of the Municipality of Istanbul, the CHP leader and other politicians spoke. The CHP had set a primary election for this Sunday, to decide its presidential candidate. It was being organised as a campaign for İmamoğlu. Under pressure from the crowd, the leader of the CHP called on everyone to join the primary on Sunday, when a large demonstration is expected.

Below we publish a statement from the Revolutionary Socialist Workers' Party – DSIP in Turkey.

The hijacking of democracy!

Developments in Turkey have gained dizzying speed. While everyone was expecting a "Gezi operation" or a new "PDC operation," the ruling bloc directly targeted the CHP and its presidential candidate.

While a journalist was detained due to the Gezi investigation, more than 100 CHP members were detained in a bribery operation, and seven people, including İmamoğlu, were arrested on terrorism charges for their “urban reconciliation” policy.

The AKP–MHP government is so sure it will lose the election that it is taking steps that amount to the seizure of democracy to prevent this through the judiciary. The current wave of authoritarianism is being deepened through the judiciary to paralyze, intimidate, and prevent millions suffering from poverty and injustice from channeling their anger into a general struggle and election alliance.

İmamoğlu’s election campaign

It is clear that the ruling bloc does not want İmamoğlu to be a candidate against Erdoğan. However, İmamoğlu has already started his election campaign, organizing effective rallies across provinces. A key part of this campaign was the mobilization of CHP’s 1.7 million members to hold a primary election on March 23 to determine their candidate.

The wave of detentions came at this moment.

Before İmamoğlu was arrested, his diploma was unlawfully revoked. Before discussions on how to counter this revocation could even begin, a dawn raid led to the detention of İmamoğlu and numerous municipal officials.

A strong voice must be raised against this blatant injustice.

All calls to action against this unlawfulness must be united, inclusive, and determined.

We will be part of this struggle.

One does not need to support İmamoğlu’s candidacy or be a CHP member to participate in these actions.

What matters is standing against injustice.

In the 2019 elections, we did not call for a vote for İmamoğlu, but when the AKP insisted on repeating the elections, we supported him to defend our democratic rights.

Now, there is a direct intervention against the fundamental democratic right to vote and be elected.

The Peace process, hunger, and the possibility of early elections

While steps were being taken towards a peace process [between the state and the Kurdish freedom movement], this heavy-handed attack on the CHP will also put pressure on the process. Since the process was first mentioned, trustee policies and PDC arrests have already been immediately enforced. Now, with the İmamoğlu operation, the ruling bloc is signaling that, as in the previous process, radical democratic steps from below will not accompany the "new peace process."

This process is being advanced by keeping the repression apparatus on high alert and preventing the masses from gaining courage.

Thus, oppressive policies and the peace process will progress simultaneously to a certain extent.

However, at some point, democratic moves will inevitably become part of the "new peace process." The ruling bloc is trying to delay these moves as much as possible.

The army of the hungry is growing

Meanwhile, Turkey is experiencing unprecedented inflation. Poverty and the cost of living are rising simultaneously. Millions are seething with anger. That is why the ruling bloc has long feared that this anger could spill onto the streets through democratic channels. As we see today, it is trying to paralyze the opposition through a continuous shock-and-awe strategy. It is adding new bricks to the walls of its empire of fear.

It is sending a warning to the crowds angry at poverty.

At the same time, it is trying to undermine the possibility of all struggle dynamics and angry masses acting in alliance against the ruling bloc in an early election. The insistence on portraying the so-called “urban reconciliation” election alliance as linked to terrorism stems from this motive.

A threshold has been crossed

Neither the revocation of İmamoğlu’s diploma nor his arrest is an ordinary event. This wave of detentions marks the crossing of a threshold and the transition to a new phase of authoritarianism. Trustee policies, heavy repression against HDP and Kurdish politicians, the omnibus bill attacking the existence of LGBTQ+ individuals, efforts to intensify oppression, and the law targeting stray animals—all these already showed the severity of the situation.

Each of these steps was an attack on democracy. We raised our voices against every one of them.

But what we are facing now is different: the government is arresting the main opposition party’s mayor of a major city — possibly the next president — seizing his right to run for office and participate in elections, and attempting to become the only political alliance allowed to participate in elections through judicial manipulation.

With this attack, the ruling bloc has crossed a threshold.

The current situation suggests that, apart from a core group within the ruling bloc, no one’s freedom is guaranteed anymore.

We must rapidly reverse this process.

The government is not strong—it is weak

While the Gezi resistance is being criminalized, potential electoral alliances are being dismantled through the judiciary, adding more bricks to the empire of fear. Those issuing these detention orders know very well that neither İmamoğlu, nor the other municipal officials, nor those arrested have any connection to terrorism. This ongoing seizure of voting rights and the remnants of democratic rights must be resisted.

Neither PDC is a terrorist organization, nor are electoral alliances a crime, nor is the elected mayor of Istanbul a criminal. This wave of arrests must end, and the government must stop turning the election process into an extreme right-wing authoritarian showdown.

One thing must be clear: This show of force by the ruling bloc is not because it is strong but because it is weak and knows it is weak. Every step of this maneuver will further weaken the ruling bloc. If these oppressive measures are met with mass resistance, they could backfire.

We must recognize that the government is not as strong as it thinks, nor is the opposition as weak as it is perceived.

Now is the time for a united struggle against the seizure of what remains of democracy.

Our demands:

► End the judiciary’s arrogance immediately. Stop this absurd wave of investigations.

► End the trustee policies.

► Release İmamoğlu, his colleagues, and journalist İsmail Saymaz immediately.

► Urgent democracy: Remove all authoritarian barriers to freedom of thought, protest, expression, and organization.

► End anti-democratic judicial interventions in electoral processes immediately.

► Free Selahattin Demirtaş, PDC detainees, and those imprisoned due to the Gezi protests.

► The Istanbul governor’s ban on demonstrations, which effectively imposes martial law, must be lifted immediately.

► Worker organizations must embrace and support the solidarity actions in this process.

Revolutionary Socialist Workers’ Party – DSİP