The Turkish government announced Thursday that 37 people have been arrested in “provocative” social media posts related to the arrest of Iklem Imamogur, mayor of Istanbul on Wednesday, and as the chief political rival of President Recept Tayyip Erdogan.
That's what Imamoguru, a rising star of the opposition CHP Party detention On Wednesday, the charges of corruption and support of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), an extremist Kurdish separatist group. Imamogul supporters and CHP officials have accused the arrest of Erdogan as a naked political trickery to knock out his top rivals in the 2028 presidential election.
Fifteen other people were arrested along with Imamoguru on Wednesday, most of whom were employees of the Istanbul city government. Imamogul recorded the mayor's astonishingly upset victory in 2019 after the AKP party in Erdogan held its office for 25 years.
Erdogan banned public demonstrations, filled the streets with riot police, closed major roads, imposed restrictions on social media when Imamoguru was arrested, and felt rightly that a massive backlash was being brewed. Despite the presence of police, the massive demonstrations calling for the Erdogan government to resign has flourished on social media despite the blackouts.
Minister of Home Ali Yarikaya I said On Thursday, 18.6 million social media posts were written about Imamoguru within 24 hours of his arrest. 261 social media accounts were cited by the Home Minister who wrote “a provocative post that incites crime and hatred.”
“Thirty-seven suspects have been caught and efforts continue to catch other suspects,” he said. I said.
Imamoguru, or someone posting in his name, posted on X on Thursday to the Turkish people “to stand up against this evil as a nation,” and called on members of Erdogan's party to abandon him.
“These events go beyond our political parties, political ideals. This process is about our people, your family. It's time to raise our voice,” Imamoguru Post said.
Erdogan has been in power for 22 years and he is technically prohibited from running again in 2028, but if Parliament calls for an early election, he is widely expected to change the Turkish constitution and remove the term limits in his office. Some current votes suggest that if both run he will lose to Imamoguru.
Turkish judicial authorities have argued that Imamogul's arrest was not political and not ordered by Erdogan, but those claims satisfy a great deal of skepticism, including the European Union.
President of the European Commission Ursula von der Reyen Called Imamogul's arrest was “deeply concerned,” and German Foreign Minister Annalena Bearbok warned that Erdogan's Turkey “has “decreasingly smaller space for opposition politicians.”
Imamogul's arrest was a disaster for the frail Turkish economy. Thursday's CNBC I said The economy was in a “free fall” due to investor panic. Turkish stocks fell on Wednesday in the world's largest world, but the lira was so much that the Turkey Central Bank had to sell $10 billion in foreign currency to support it.
Timothy Ash, an emerging market strategist in Blue Bay Asset Management, warned on Wednesday that Turkey's economic meltdown would worsen unless the government can “create a compelling incident” to arrest Imamoguru.
Cagaptay, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute and sonar of Turkish historian, discovered that this possibility was unlikely as Erdogan was clearly in panic and “choosing nuclear choice” to drive Imamoguru out of the presidential race.
“The poll presented to Erdogan is likely to show that even with the benefits of his current position and full control of the institution and media, Imamogul still beat him with a big margin,” Cagaptay said.
Erdogan may have been troubled to take that nuclear option before Imamoguru could receive the president's party nomination on Sunday. George Dyson, senior risk-risk analyst at Control, told CNBC that even if Erdogan was three years away, this might have felt it was the best opportunity to arrest Imamoguru.
