Protests erupt in Turkey after main opposition candidate arrested by Tayyip Erdogan

 

Protesters and police square off in Istanbul. BBC/Getty.

Protests have erupted in Turkey after the main opposition candidate, Ekrem Imamoglu, has been arrested by President Tayyip Erdogan. BBC. Imamoglu is the Mayor of Istanbul and a member of the secular Republican People's Party (CHP) and a major political rival of Erdogan. Imamoglu was arrested along with 100 others after being accused of corruption and supporting the PKK, a Kurdish terror group that had just laid down arms earlier in the month. Imamoglu's college degree was also revoked by Istanbul University, which would disqualify his candidacy due to a constitutional rule that requires candidates to have completed higher education. Erdogan is term limited and cannot run in the next presidential election in 2028 unless the constitution is changed. It was unclear if his party would win in either case before the arrests.

My Comment:

This seems like another example of NATO countries falling into dictatorship. It's not very different than the results of the Romanian election being overturned because the "wrong" candidate won. And it's very similar to what happened with Donald Trump in the lead up to 2024 election, though Trump was able to overcome the charges against him and win the election anyways. 

It absolutely appears that Erdogan is rigging an election he might lose otherwise. Erdogan's party is a lot less popular than it used to be, largely because Erdogan is acting like this. He had a pretty major defeat in the past election and he even lost the Mayorship of Istanbul to Imamoglu, which was a personal blow for him as that is how he came up. 

Could the charges be true? I am guessing not. I don't see how Imamoglu was supposed to be helping with PKK given that he's the Mayor of Istanbul and the PKK is mostly active in the border area with Syria and Iraq. Could he be corrupt? Possibly, but I don't doubt there is corruption everywhere in Turkey. 

I also don't know if he would be any better than Erdogan. My main problems with him are his racism against Kurds, his religious views and the fact that he doesn't get along well with his neighbors. Imamoglu might not share those problems but who knows if he would end up any better? But the people of Turkey are the ones that should decide that, not Tayyip Erdogan. 

Despite this arrest, I do think that Tayyip Erdogan's grip on power is still secure for the moment. Many of his more powerful political enemies were purged in the failed coup in 2016. There might be some disorder and riots but without strong leadership I don't see them accomplishing much. There needs to be leadership against Erdogan for there to be a change in regime and I don't see that happening when one of the last folks that could pull that off just got arrested.