Erdogan has weaponized the judiciary to destroy the century-old, opposition party in Turkey. Turkey's forthcoming war with Israel must begin in 2027 or 2028 in time for Erdogan to cancel the 2028 elections.
Turkey: Mayor of Istanbul seeking ‘democratic transition’ writes letter from jail warning about Erdogan
Last March, Jihad Watch reported that Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoglu had considerable support in his bid to challenge Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for the presidency, but then he was arbitrarily detained on “corruption” suspicions — which are often conjured up against anyone who threatens Erdogan’s authority or leadership. So Imamoglu was arrested, interrogated, jailed, and stripped of his title as mayor. Imamoglu was likely the only politician capable of defeating Erdogan. The furious protests that subsequently erupted in Turkey were a threat to Erdogan. What happened next was even more potentially disastrous for Erdogan. Despite Imamoglu’s incarceration, the opposition party officially nominated him anyway as its presidential candidate for the 2028 elections. The numbers in support of him were overwhelming. “Some 15 million people voted” in the primary “to choose a presidential candidate for Turkey’s opposition CHP party.”
The hope of Erdogan would be that Ekrem Imamoğlu languish in jail and be silenced, but he is doing neither. The Guardian has published a letter Imamoğlu wrote in jail. He’s resolute and warns the world about Erdogan in his article below.
Turkey is “the new Iran, under the leadership of its jihadist leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan, according to a top Israeli strategic analyst.”
Meanwhile, Trump is hosting Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the White House as the US considers lifting a ban on F-35 sales.
I was elected mayor of Istanbul, but I write this from jail: Turkish democracy is under grave threat
by Ekrem Imamoğlu, Guardian, September 24, 2025:
Last year, I was reelected mayor of Istanbul with 51% of the vote. It was the second time I had defeated the government-backed candidate. The first was in 2019 when the mayoral elections were annulled on flimsy pretexts; voters returned to the polls and handed us a victory by an even larger margin.
But this year, democracy in Turkey has entered its most perilous phase. The process started in March on the eve of my nomination as the presidential candidate of the CHP, the century-old Republican People’s party. This was when my university degree was abruptly annulled. Why is this relevant? Because, under the Turkish constitution, one must have a university degree to be able to run for president. Soon after, I was accused of corruption and “aiding a terrorist organisation”. For six months, I have been behind bars, arrested on politically motivated corruption charges based on “anonymous” witnesses. In a country bound by the European convention on human rights, this is an outrage.
Nor am I alone. Across Turkey, more than a dozen mayors from the opposition are now imprisoned. Sadly, the numbers are rising all the time; more than a quarter of Istanbul’s districts have had their elected leaders arrested, silencing millions of voters in one of the world’s great cities.
From mayors in Adana and Antalya, to municipal staff in Istanbul, repression has reached every level. Hundreds of people languish in prison, including journalists, academics, businesspeople and students.Enes Hocaoğulları, a youth delegate to the Council of Europe, was detained for merely speaking out under Turkey’s vaguely worded laws on “misleading” the public. This shows how far the crackdown has gone. His release, after protests at home and abroad, is a small but telling victory for democratic resistance.
Let me be clear about what is happening. In the arrogance of unchecked power, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is once more weaponising the courts against the democratic opposition. This time, opponents are being imprisoned and replaced with loyalists. Unable to shut down the CHP, the government is pursuing a case that will have the effect of erasing the CHP’s rising leadership by overturning the outcome of its 2023 national party congress. Earlier this month, a court moved to annul the CHP’s local congress in Istanbul, remove its chair and install a trustee….
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