Erdogan was emboldened to jail Istanbul mayor by global turmoil, analysts say
ISTANBUL (AP) — The imprisonment of Istanbul’s opposition mayor has come at a time when Turkey finds itself at the center of geopolitical turmoil that observers say has freed President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to target his most dangerous opponent.
Ekrem Imamoglu was detained in a dawn raid on his official residence last week. On Sunday, a court ordered him to be jailed pending trial for graft offenses including bid-rigging and accepting bribes. He also faces terror-related charges.
As mayor of the economic and cultural capital of Turkey with a population of 16 million, Imamoglu is probably Turkey’s second-highest profile politician after Erdogan.
However, analysts say a convergence of international factors gave Erdogan the opportunity to try to neutralize the main threat to him in elections due to be held in 2028, but which could come sooner.
“There are a really special confluence of factors that made this seemingly easy for him to pull off in terms of not suffering international condemnation or punishment for it,” said Monica Marks, professor of Middle East studies at New York University Abu Dhabi.
The arrest of Imamoglu over corruption and terrorism allegations came as a bombshell last Wednesday, despite recent legal cases against district mayors from his Republican People’s Party, or CHP.
Since 2016, when Erdogan faced an attempted coup, Turkey’s courts have widened their crackdown on opposition parties, using charges such as graft or ties to Kurdish militants to discredit his rivals.
The government, however, says the courts are fully independent and denies claims that legal actions against opposition figures are politically motivated.
Turkey’s strategic assets
The European Union, which usually offers criticism of Turkey’s democratic slide, currently finds itself in a weaker position vis-a-vis Turkey due to “American abandonment” of European defense, Russian aggression, and its “own internal demons” from EU-sceptic forces using migration as a tool to gain relevance, according to Marks.
Ankara is in a position to offer succor in all these areas. Militarily, Turkey has NATO’s second largest army in addition to a well-developed defense industry capable of supplying high-tech weaponry such as aerial drones.
During the course of the war in Ukraine, Turkey has maintained close ties with both Moscow and Kyiv and has repeatedly offered to act as a mediator in peace talks.
Turkey is also emboldened by the collapse of the Assad government in neighboring Syria at the hands of rebels it supported over the course of the war. These rebels now make up the new government.
On migration to Europe, Ankara has acted as a barrier since it signed a 2016 deal in which it agreed to prevent migrants crossing its borders and seas to reach the EU.
All these strands increase Turkey’s geopolitical importance to Europe.
Turkey’s internal politics drove the timing of arrest
President Donald Trump’s isolationist outlook has also strengthened Erdogan’s hand, said Marks, while the “normalization of populist authoritarianism makes what Erdogan is doing less shocking, less concerning for Western democracies.”
While international elements offered Erdogan the opportunity to act against Imamoglu, the timing was due to domestic factors.
Berk Esen, a political scientist at Istanbul’s Sabanci University, said the CHP’s decision to confirm Imamoglu as its presidential candidate for 2028 was key to his arrest.
“Erdogan was hopeful that he could slow down, if not completely hinder, Imamoglu’s candidacy prospects,” Esen said. “But when the CHP decided to hold (presidential) primaries, it became clear that Imamoglu would come out as the candidate for the CHP so Erdogan wanted to move against him right away.”
Those primaries — in which Imamoglu was the only candidate — were held Sunday, confirming the imprisoned Imamoglu as Erdogan’s challenger.
The Kurdish factor
Another domestic factor in Erdogan’s favor was the tentative peace process begun with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which has waged a 40-year insurgency against the Turkish state and is considered a terrorist organization by Turkey and its Western allies.
Many observers have suggested the process is, at least in part, a bid to co-opt Turkey’s pro-Kurdish party into supporting Erdogan’s bid for another presidential term. Similarly, it could serve to split the Kurds from the CHP, presenting Erdogan with a divided opposition, Esen said.
Imamoglu has emerged as the main challenger to Erdogan’s 22-year rule since he was elected mayor of Istanbul in 2019, overturning a quarter-century of rule by parties from Turkey’s conservative Islamist tradition.
According to Esen, he is the “perfect” candidate to take on Erdogan – relatively young at 53, from a conservative Sunni background but with a “modern” wife, and hailing from the Black Sea business world that offers nationwide informal connections.
He has outperformed Erdogan in recent polls and represents what Marks called the “last bastion” of Turkish opposition.
In recent years he has been the target of several criminal cases that could result in prison sentences and a political ban. Last week, a university nullified his diploma, a decision that effectively bars him from running for president.
All of which would make it seem unnecessary to arrest and jail him, risking the public backlash currently being played out in the streets of Turkey.
Selim Koru, a political analyst at the Economic Policy Research Foundation of Turkey, said the earlier cases would merely make Imamoglu seem a “perfectly fine politician who was unfairly disqualified.”
Writing in his Kulturkampf Substack, Koru added: “They had to make him into a villain to give their claims force … The strategic rationale is evident at once. The presidential elections are scheduled for 2028, so the regime wanted to get rid of Imamoglu before then, knock down the CHP while you’re at it, then take a couple of years for things to calm down.”
And as to the significance putting Imamoglu behind bars, Marks said it represents the “last stop on Turkey’s political train before it hits full dictatorship station.”
By ANDREW WILKS
Associated Press
