Tens of thousands of protesters have taken part in demonstrations across Turkey after the main rival to the country’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was formally arrested and charged with corruption.
Ekrem Imamoglu, the mayor of Istanbul, was due to be selected as the Republican People’s Party’s (CHP) 2028 presidential nominee in a vote on Sunday.
In response to his arrest, Sunday night saw a ramping up of the worst unrest the country has seen in more than a decade – with protesters fired upon with tear gas and rubber bullets.
Imamoglu said the allegations against him are politically motivated. “I will never bow,” he wrote on X before he was remanded in custody.
Erdogan has condemned the demonstrations and accused the CHP of trying to “disturb the peace and polarise our people”.
Crowds amassed near Istanbul’s city hall by early evening on Sunday for a fifth night, and could be seen waving Turkish flags and chanting in front of a row of riot police.
Officers were seen firing water cannons at some protesters and using pepper spray.
Imamoglu’s wife Dilek Kaya Imamoglu addressed the large crowds outside the city hall, telling demonstrators that the “injustice” her husband has faced has “struck a chord with every conscience”.
The demonstrations in response to Imamoglu’s arrest are the largest the country has seen since the Gezi protests of 2013, which began in Istanbul over the demolition of a local park.
In total, rallies took place in at least 55 of Turkey’s 81 provinces, or more than two-thirds of the country, according to a tally by French news agency AFP.
Imamoglu was one of more than 100 people, including other politicians, journalists and businessmen, detained as part of an investigation on Wednesday.
He was formally arrested on Sunday and charged with “establishing and managing a criminal organisation, taking bribes, extortion, unlawfully recording personal data and rigging a tender”.
He was remanded in custody pending trial. AFP and local media reported he had been taken to a prison in Silivri.
Imamoglu has also been suspended from his post as mayor, Turkey’s interior ministry said in a statement.
In social media posts, Imamoglu criticised his arrest as a “black stain on our democracy”, and said judicial procedure was not being followed.
He urged people across the country to join protests and take part in Sunday’s vote.
In a message shared on X through his lawyers late on Sunday, Imamoglu sent his greetings to those protesting and said that voters had showed Turkey had “enough” of Erdogan.
Imamoglu was the only person running in the CHP’s presidential candidate selection.
The arrest does not prevent Imamoglu’s candidacy and election as president, but if he is convicted of any of the charges against him, he will not be able to run.
Imamoglu’s CHP party said nearly 15 million people cast a ballot on Sunday.
The CHP said some 1.6 million votes came from its members, while the rest were cast by non-members at separate ballot boxes for those who wished to show solidarity with Imamoglu.
The BBC cannot independently verify these figures.
Waiting to cast her ballot, 38-year-old Aslihan told AFP: “We won’t give in to despair”.
In a post on X, Imamoglu’s wife shared pictures of herself casting her vote and urged the country to vote for “democracy, justice and the future”.
The jailed politician is seen as one of the most formidable rivals of Erdogan, who has held office in Turkey for 22 years as both prime minister and president.
However, due to term limits, Erdogan cannot run for office again in 2028 unless he changes the constitution.
The Ministry of Justice has criticised those connecting Erdogan to the arrests, and insist on its judicial independence.
On Sunday, X’s Global Government Affairs department said it objected to “multiple court orders” from Turkey’s communications regulator to block over 700 accounts on the platform, including those of Turkish political figures and journalists.
X said the move was “not only unlawful, it hinders millions of Turkish users from news and political discourse in their country”.
Meanwhile, Istanbul University announced on Tuesday it was revoking Imamoglu’s degree due to alleged irregularities.
If upheld, this would put his ability to run as president into doubt, since the Turkish constitution says presidents must have completed higher education to hold office.
Imamoglu’s lawyers said they would appeal the decision to revoke his degree to the Constitutional Court and the European Court of Human Rights.
The Supreme Election Council will decide whether Imamoglu is qualified to be a candidate.
Prosecutors also want to charge Imamoglu with “aiding an armed terrorist organisation”, but the Turkish court said it was not currently necessary.
The CHP had a de facto alliance with the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM) in connection with last year’s local elections.
DEM has been accused of being affiliated with the PKK – or Kurdistan Workers’ Party – which it denies.
The PKK declared a ceasefire early this month, after waging an insurgency against Turkey for more than 40 years. It is proscribed as a terrorist group in Turkey, the EU, UK and US.
