FOUNDATION FOR DEFENSE OF DEMOCRACIES
Turkey Arrests Presidential Candidate Ekrem Imamoglu
Sinan Ciddi
March 19, 2025

It was, according to Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party, a “coup against our next president.” In the early hours of March 19, Turkish police arrested Ekrem Imamoglu, the mayor of Istanbul who last month announced his intention to run for president. The mayor’s arrest is a worrying demonstration of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s contempt for basic democratic norms. One day earlier, Istanbul University annulled Imamoglu’s status as a graduate of Turkey’s oldest university. The Turkish constitution requires all presidential candidates to be university graduates as a precondition for running. Imamoglu was then arrested and charged by police for alleged “corrupt practices in municipal business,” including bribery, fraud, money laundering, personal enrichment, and bid rigging. READ MORE