The first anniversary of İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu’s imprisonment was marked on Thursday by messages of solidarity from European politicians, a student march in central İstanbul and new arrests after an evening rally near City Hall, Turkish Minute reported.
İmamoğlu, the jailed mayor of Turkey’s largest city and the presidential candidate of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), was detained on March 19, 2025, and later jailed pending trial in a corruption case, the charges in which he denies. Critics say the case is politically motivated and meant to sideline President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s strongest rival, while the government says the judiciary is acting independently.
Messages of support came from several European political figures and bodies on the anniversary.
Dario Nardella, a former mayor of Florence and now a member of the European Parliament, said in a social media post that Brussels was marking the anniversary and would not stop pressing until İmamoğlu and other jailed activists were free.
Nacho Sánchez Amor, the European Parliament’s rapporteur on Turkey, said the European Union should not stay silent and that İmamoğlu should not be in jail.
The Party of European Socialists group in the European Committee of the Regions said millions were still standing up for democracy in Turkey one year after what it called his unjust arrest.
Students also took to the streets in İstanbul on Thursday. University students gathered near İstanbul University and marched to Beyazıt Square, where they issued a statement describing themselves as the generation that tore down police barricades during protests in March 2025.
The students said young people had paid a heavy price over the past year through arrests, suspensions, investigations and house arrest. In language echoing the legacy of the 2013 Gezi Park protests, they said youths would continue resisting what they described as pressure from the government and called for stronger organized opposition.
Following an evening gathering near İstanbul City Hall to mark the anniversary of the mayor’s detention, 35 people were taken into custody during a police intervention. Thirty-one were later released, while four were referred to court, two of whom were arrested and two released under judicial supervision.
CHP İstanbul provincial chairman Özgür Çelik criticized the detentions, saying some of those held were under 18 and had been kept in a police vehicle for hours without their families being notified. He called the response harsh and senseless and said the party would follow the legal process.
İmamoğlu remains behind bars and is now on trial in the biggest of several cases against him. Prosecutors are seeking a combined prison sentence of more than 2,000 years in a sweeping municipality corruption case. A separate challenge to his university degree could also prevent him from running for president under Turkey’s constitution even if he beats the criminal charges.
