(Istanbul) Several tens of thousands of people gathered Thursday in Istanbul in the presence of all the leaders of the Turkish opposition to support the mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, sentenced to prison and stripped of his political rights.
Mr. Imamoglu, sentenced Wednesday to two years and seven months in prison and the suspension of his political activities for an equivalent period, addressed the compact crowd, massed in the rain, in front of the headquarters of the municipality.
“They erased your votes! he launched in front of a tide of red flags from Turkey. “This is not my trial but the trial of justice and fairness”, insisted the elected official, ensuring that he was “absolutely not afraid of this illegitimate decision”.
PHOTO UMIT BEKTAS, REUTERS
Ekrem Imamoglu, the mayor of Istanbul, addressed the protesters.
“I have no judges to protect me but I have 16 million Istanbulites and our nation behind me,” he continued, before concluding “Everything will be fine! – the slogan of his winning campaign for mayor in 2019.
It is the first time that the six opposition parties have met in public gathering since the launch of their common platform to confront President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the presidential and parliamentary elections in 2023.
Kemal Kilicdaroglu, boss of the main formation, the CHP, considered the probable common candidate of the opposition, denounced “a blow dealt to the nation by justice” and promised “not to give in one millimeter”.
A gathering of several hundred people, according to the Turkish press, was held simultaneously in Trabzon (northeast), the hometown of the mayor on the Black Sea.
Mr. Imamoglu, 52, also a member of the CHP and a rising star in Turkish politics, is also seen as a serious candidate for the opposition, after having won the richest and the main city of Turkey from the party of Mr. Erdogan, the AKP, in May 2919.
He was accused of having “insulted” the members of the electoral college – treated as “idiots” – who had invalidated his victory, before a new poll confirmed it with a bang three months later.
The city councilor, who assured that he had only “returned” the insult to the Minister of the Interior who had, according to him, used this term, announced his intention to appeal.
Mr. Erdogan, in power for almost 20 years, announced his candidacy for his own succession next spring, in the context of a severe economic crisis and inflation of more than 84%.
The president did not speak, but the leader of the nationalist MHP party, Devlet Bahçeli, a member of the ruling coalition, indicated “that everyone must respect a court decision, whether they like it or not”.
A survey by the Metropoll Institute showed, however, Thursday that, even among AKP sympathizers, the judgment against Mr. Imamoglu does not convince: 28% of them seeing it as “a political affair” against 22% a real lawsuit for defamation.
The mayor’s conviction sparked a wave of international disapproval, Berlin evoking “a blow to democracy”.
France urged Turkey “to urgently reverse the negative trends at work in terms of the rule of law, democracy and respect for fundamental rights”.
For the US State Department, which also says it is “gravely concerned”, “this unjust sentence is incompatible with the rule of law” and the European Union, the judge “disproportionate, confirming the systemic lack of independence of Justice “.
On Twitter, Marc Pierini, specialist in Turkey at the Carnegie-Europe Institute in Brussels, believes that “if this verdict is not overturned on appeal, the credibility of the ballot will be seriously damaged”.