ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Istanbul's municipal council elected Nuri Aslan as the interim mayor on Wednesday, following the jailing of elected mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, who is held pending trial on corruption charges. Both Aslan and Imamoglu are members of the main opposition, People’s Republican Party (CHP).
Imamoglu was sacked from his position last week following a court order on corruption charges. He is seen as the main rival to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the upcoming 2028 presidential race. His arrest has triggered nationwide protests.
The opposition-run municipality elected Aslan as the interim mayor to prevent the government from appoint a trustee to run the municipality, as the state has done in the past, especially in Kurdish-majority areas.
Ozgur Ozel, the leader of the CHP, said on Sunday that 14,850,000 people voted for Imamoglu in the party’s primary as presidential candidate.
“We demand early elections. That’s the field and we are here. We also ask the AKP to nominate their candidate,” Ozel told a crowd in Istanbul, calling on the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) to agree on early polls.
Imamoglu’s arrest comes days after he was detained as part of an extensive investigation into a criminal organization. Prosecutors say that 99 suspects, including Imamgolu, were involved in bribery, extortion, fraud, unlawful data acquisition, and tender rigging, according to Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency.
In a statement Imamoglu delivered in court that was relayed by Anadolu, the Istanbul mayor dismissed the accusations as politically motivated and part of a broader “conspiracy” by prosecutors. “Every page they write is garbage,” he said, slamming the alleged terrorism links as “offensive.”
Several Western countries have condemned the sacking of Imamoglu and Secretary of State Marco Rubio told the Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan in Washington on Tuesday that his country is concerned about the recent crackdown on protesters in Turkey.
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