“Sono il principale sfidante del presidente turco. Sono stato arrestato.” Imamoglu ha parlato con il New York Times.

Context:

Detained on March 19 and held in Silivri Prison since Sunday, Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality **Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu wrote an article for The New York Times, one of the leading newspapers in the United States. In the letter, published under the headline “I Am the Turkish President’s Main Challenger. I Was Arrested,”** İmamoğlu described the events that have unfolded since his detention.

**Here is the Article:**

Dozens of armed police officers showed up at my door early in the morning on March 19 with an arrest warrant. The scene resembled the capture of a terrorist rather than the detention of the elected mayor of Turkey’s largest city, Istanbul.

This dramatic move came just four days before my party, the Republican People’s Party (CHP), was set to hold a primary for the next presidential election. It was dramatic but not unexpected. It followed months of legal harassment against me, culminating in the sudden annulment of my university diploma 31 years after I had graduated. Authorities seemed to believe this would disqualify me from running because the Constitution requires a presidential candidate to hold a higher education diploma.

Realizing he could not defeat me at the ballot box, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan resorted to other means: He had his most significant political rival arrested on charges of corruption, bribery, running a criminal network, and aiding the PKK, even though these accusations lacked credible evidence. Due to financial allegations, I was removed from my democratically elected office.

Mr. Erdoğan’s regime has spent years eroding Turkey’s democratic checks and balances by silencing the media, replacing elected mayors with bureaucrats, sidelining the legislature, controlling the judiciary, and manipulating elections. In recent months, a wave of mass arrests targeting protesters and journalists has sent a chilling message: No one is safe. Votes can be invalidated, and freedoms can be taken away in an instant. Under Mr. Erdoğan’s rule, the republic has turned into a republic of fear.

This is more than a slow erosion of democracy. It is the deliberate dismantling of the institutional foundations of our republic. My arrest marks a new stage in Turkey’s slide into authoritarianism and arbitrary power. A country with a long democratic tradition now faces a grave risk of reaching a point of no return.

The repression extends beyond me. In a sweeping operation based on an indictment consisting of nothing more than statements from secret witnesses, police detained nearly 100 people, including senior municipal officials and business leaders. In the days leading up to the arrests, pro-government media launched disinformation and smear campaigns.

Yet, the people of Turkey responded with defiance. Despite protest bans and roadblocks preventing access to cities, hundreds of thousands of citizens took to the streets—from Istanbul to Rize, a city that has long been an Erdoğan stronghold. Within hours of my detention, and in the days that followed, people of all ages and backgrounds joined my party. Outside Istanbul’s municipal headquarters, citizens kept vigil despite increasingly harsh measures and arrests.

Despite the crackdown, the CHP successfully held its presidential primary on Sunday. According to the party’s count, 15 million people, including 1.7 million registered party members, voted for me as the party’s presidential candidate.

Since my election as mayor in 2019, I have faced nearly 100 investigations and a dozen court cases. Ranging from the irrational to the absurd, each charge has been part of a broader effort to wear me down, prevent me from serving the people who elected me, remove me from office, and eliminate me as a competitor to Mr. Erdoğan.

I have run against Erdoğan-backed candidates three times—twice in the 2019 Istanbul municipal elections and once last year. He personally campaigned against me. Each time, I won. Now, because he cannot defeat me at the ballot box, he is using his grip on the judiciary to sideline an opponent who, according to the latest polls, would win if elections were held today.

Amid growing injustice and a troubled economy, public frustration in Turkey has reached a boiling point. People are raising their voices, rallying around me— a candidate who promises justice and hope for a better future. They will not be silenced. The public also recognizes that my arrest is an attempt to push Turkey further down the path of autocracy.

Even under pressure, signs of solidarity persist. From Amsterdam to Zagreb, social democratic leaders and mayors across Turkey have shown their support with courage and principle following my arrest. Civil society has not hesitated either. **But central governments around the world? Their silence is deafening. Washington has merely expressed its “concerns about the recent arrests and protests” in Turkey. With few exceptions, European leaders have failed to offer a strong response.**

**It is an undeniable fact that recent events—such as Russia’s war in Ukraine, the fall of the Assad regime in our neighbor Syria, and the destruction in Gaza—have increased Turkey’s strategic importance, particularly given its critical capacity to contribute to Europe’s security. However, geopolitics should not blind us to the erosion of values, especially human rights violations. Otherwise, we risk legitimizing those who are dismantling the global rules-based order piece by piece.**

**The survival of democracy in Turkey is not only vital for its own people but also for the future of democracy worldwide. In an era of unchecked powerful leaders, those who believe in democracy must be just as vocal, strong, and relentless as its opponents. The fate of democracy depends on the courage of students, workers, citizens, unions, and elected officials who refuse to remain silent as institutions collapse. I trust in the people fighting for justice and democracy in Turkey and beyond.**