Turkish court sentences Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoglu to two years and 7 months in prison for “insulting officials”. Ruling also includes political ban

8 comments

  1. Isn’t he a very popular guy? He is certainly like the only Turkish politician I know that I actually respect

    I don’t see this working out for Erdogan

  2. Doesn’t he have some form of immunity as a mayor? Anyway, one doesn’t even have to look at the details to see that this a classical move out of the dictators playbook. I hope it backfires.

  4. This is probably the worst move Erdogan could have done. He doomed himself for good this time. Ekrem İmamoğlu was already really popular, and this move just gave him all the popularity he needed.

    Funny that this is exactly how Erdogan came to power. Got jailed and gained the sympathy of the people.

  5. This may seem minor at first but this will have huge consequences.

    To add some context (I don’t think everyone follows Turkish politics)… As you probably know İstanbul is the biggest city in Turkey and have huge impact on Turkish economy, politics, culture you name it. Before becoming a PM and President, R.T Erdoğan was mayor of İstanbul. Erdoğan also sentenced for political ban before and he came back even stronger.

    3 years ago, at İstanbul mayoral election, İmamoğlu beaten AKP’s candidate not once, twice. At first election High Election Board decided to re-do whole election at İstanbul. İmamoğlu managed to win with a small margin at first. Yet second one was a big landslide. More importantly, Erdoğan worked so hard to get his nominee selected. It was actually between him and imamoğlu.

    Now we are getting close to next presidential election. İmamoğlu was one of the 3 biggest possible candidates for opposition. AKP may manage to prevent İmamoğlu but at the same time opposition become even more closer.

    This could be RTE’s biggest mistake. In Turkey, Turkish justice may seem independent but everyone knows its in direct influence of ruling pary, AKP.

  7. They are just increasing his popularity, Erdogan knows that if this man wins the election, there will be no judgment for him. If they do not win, they will make this man president. We have seen before that Imamoglu did not judge tayyip’s men.

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