Turkey detains 37 over ‘provocative’ social media posts following mayor’s arrest
Ekrem Imamoglu was detained after a dawn raid on his residence on Wednesday as part of investigations into alleged corruption and terror links.
Thirty-seven people have been detained by Turkish authorities for sharing “provocative” content on social media, the interior minister has said.
The authorities are pressing ahead with a crackdown on dissenting voices that escalated with the arrest on Wednesday of the mayor of Istanbul, a potential challenger to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu was detained after a dawn raid on his residence as part of investigations into alleged corruption and terror links. Several other prominent figures, including two district mayors, were also detained.
The detention of a popular opposition leader and key rival of Mr Erdogan deepened concerns over democracy and sparked protests in Istanbul and elsewhere, despite a four-day ban on demonstrations in the city and road closures.
It also caused a shockwave in the financial market, triggering temporary halts in trading to prevent panic selling.
Critics see the crackdown as an effort by Mr Erdogan to extend his more then two-decade rule following significant losses by the ruling party in local elections last year.
Government officials reject claims that legal actions against opposition figures are politically motivated and insist that the courts operate independently.
Omer Celik, the spokesman of Mr Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party, disputed allegations by the opposition that the detentions were government-orchestrated and urged respect for the judicial process.
“What a politician should do is to follow the judicial process,” Mr Celik told journalists. “None of us have any information about the content of the (criminal) file.”
Interior minister Ali Yerlikaya said authorities identified 261 social media accounts that shared provocative posts inciting public hatred or crime, including 62 that are run by people based abroad. At least 37 of the suspected owners were detained in an operation by police and cyber-crime teams, he wrote on X, formerly Twitter. Efforts to detain other suspects were continuing, he said.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz expressed concern over the mayor’s detention, saying it was a “very, very bad sign” for Turkey’s relations with the European Union.
Mr Scholz said it was “depressing for democracy in Turkey, but certainly also depressing for the relationship between Europe and Turkey”.
“We can only call for this to end immediately and for opposition and government to stand in competition with each other, and not the opposition being brought to court,” he said.
Prosecutors accused Mr Imamoglu of exploiting his position for financial gain, including the improper allocation of government contracts.
In a separate investigation, prosecutors also accuse Mr Imamoglu of aiding the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, by allegedly forming an alliance with a Kurdish umbrella organisation for the Istanbul municipal elections.
It was not clear when authorities would begin questioning the mayor, who can be detained without charges for up to four days. Analysts say Mr Imamoglu could be removed from office and replaced by a “trustee mayor” if he is formally charged with links to the PKK.
Before his detention, Mr Imamoglu already faced multiple criminal cases that could result in prison sentences and a political ban. He is also appealing a 2022 conviction for insulting members of Turkey’s Supreme Electoral Council, a case that could result in a political ban.
This week, a university nullified his diploma, citing alleged irregularities in his 1990 transfer from a private university in northern Cyprus to its business faculty, a decision Mr Imamoglu said he would challenge. The decision effectively bars him from running for president, since the position requires candidates to be university graduates.
Mr Imamoglu was elected mayor of Turkey’s largest city in March 2019, a historic blow to Mr Erdogan and the president’s Justice and Development Party, which had controlled Istanbul for a quarter-of-a-century. Mr Erdogan’s party pushed to void the municipal election results in the city of 16 million, alleging irregularities.
The challenge resulted in a repeat of the election a few months later, which Mr Imamoglu also won. The mayor retained his seat following local elections last year, during which his party made significant gains against Mr Erdogan’s governing party.
