“Turkey is now a full -fledged autocracy”, title Foreign Affairs. “Pure and simple autocracy” For politico. After the incarceration Sunday, March 23 for “corruption” of Ekrem Imamoglu, the main opponent of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the foreign media are unanimous. “His imprisonment is widely considered a political gesture to eliminate a great competitor from the next presidential race,” reports the agency Associated Press.
The main interested party denounces “an execution without trial”. “I am there. I wear a white shirt and you will not be able to dirty it. My wrist is solid and you will not be able to twist it. I will not go back a thumb. I will win this war,” he said in a message transmitted by his lawyers. In addition to Ekrem Imamoglu, nearly fifty co-accused were also placed in detention for “corruption” and “terrorism” according to the Turkish press.
15 million people in the polls
Sunday, like every evening since Wednesday, the day of the arrest of the opponent, tens of thousands of people gathered near the town hall of Istanbul as support for Ekrem Imamoglu. A wave of unprecedented protest in the country since the big contestation movement of Gezi, who started from Place Taksim in 2013. These gatherings are “the biggest demonstrations that Turkey has seen for more than a decade”, underlines the British magazine The Economist. During clashes, “the riot police used rubber bullets and pepper gas in Istanbul, while the demonstrators in Ankara were welcomed with water cannons”, Relates Al Jazeera.
After having attended, powerless, to the suspension of the functions of the mayor of Istanbul on Sunday, the supports of Ekrem Imamoglu multiplied the gestures of encouragement towards him. Sunday, the Republican Persons of the People (CHP), the main force of the opposition, maintained a primary election to which Ekrem Imamoglu was the only candidate. Result: 15 million people supported the mayor of Istanbul in the ballot boxes. A score allowing him to be officially appointed this Monday by his candidate party for the next presidential election scheduled for 2028.
“A calculated and in -depth plan”
In the investigation that conducted the arrest of the politician, the office of the chief prosecutor of Istanbul accused Imamoglu of establishing and managing a criminal organization, of taking bribes, extortion and of illegally recording personal data “. Prosecutors also accused him of supporting terrorism by his political coordination with a prokurd group in the local elections of last year. “During the interrogation, the authorities presented him with a card showing photographs of 99 people allegedly involved in the corruption ploy, demanding that he identify those he knew and explains his relations,” said the oldest English -speaking daily in Turkey, Hürriyet Daily News.
The accusations of Recep Tayyip Erdogan against the opposition come after the unexpected victories of the CHP in several cities of the country during the municipal elections of 2024. Foreign Affairsthis cannot be a coincidence: “the plan to withdraw imamoglu from the game was calculated and in -depth”. “Erdogan brought the judiciary under its authority by serving thousands of judges and replacing them with loyalists. The media have been muzzled; more than 90 % of the Turkish media belong to progressive companies, and independent journalists are regularly imprisoned,” deplores the bi -measurement of the American. This Monday, March 24, ten Turkish journalists, including an AFP photographer, were arrested at their home, the Turkish human rights association Mlsa reported.
“A path similar to that that Putin has taken in Russia”
By stopping his main opponent, “Erdogan endangers Turkish democracy,” said The Economistwhich regrets that “the advantage of the abolition of a large rival” is worth “the blow of the evisceration of democracy”. Foreign Affairs is more categorical and laments when seeing that Recep Tayyip Erdogan “follows a path similar to that that Putin has taken in Russia”. “If he succeeds, he will head for the next election against an opponent he has chosen himself, thus ensuring his reign for life,” continues the bimonthly.
Even if the opponent of the regime in place was released before the next elections, Ekrem Imamoglu will be “confronted with a potentially insurmountable obstacle”, warns The Economist. “The day before his detention, the authorities revoked his university degree, making him ineligible to the presidency under Turkish law, since this mandate is only open to graduates,” summarizes the British magazine. Disputes in Türkiye are therefore far from coming to an end.