Jailed İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu and his wife, Dilek İmamoğlu, have been awarded the Kant World Citizen Award by Germany’s Immanuel Kant Foundation in recognition of their commitment to democracy and the rule of law, Turkish Minute reported.
The award was presented during a ceremony at the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg on May 9, Europe Day.
Former German president Christian Wulff presented the award, which was accepted on behalf of the couple by Gökhan Günaydın, an İstanbul deputy from the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) and deputy chairman of the party’s parliamentary group.
İmamoğlu, one of Turkey’s most prominent opposition politicians and the CHP presidential candidate, has been in pretrial detention since March 2025 on charges that include corruption and “political espionage,” accusations he and his party deny.
His arrest came shortly after the CHP formally nominated him as its presidential candidate and triggered nationwide protests. The CHP and rights groups say the investigations targeting İmamoğlu are politically motivated and aimed at preventing him from running against President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
The foundation cited the İmamoğlus’ efforts in support of democracy and the rule of law as well as their stance against corruption and political pressure as reasons for the award.
Frank Schwabe, a senior official in Germany’s federal government and a member of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), was also among the three recipients of this year’s Kant World Citizen Award, with the foundation recognizing his work on human rights, democratic structures and the fight against corruption.
Freiburg Mayor Martin Horn and representatives of the CHP’s organizations in Germany also attended the ceremony.
Since 2004 the foundation has honored individuals and initiatives that act in the spirit of Immanuel Kant’s philosophy in support of democracy, the rule of law and peace.
The Kant foundation said this year’s award ceremony was held under the theme “Resilience instead of megalomania, democratic rule of law instead of autocratic distortion of the law.”
The 2026 honorees also included Ukraine’s “Unbroken” rehabilitation center in Lviv, which provides treatment and rehabilitation for people wounded in Russia’s ongoing war on the country.
The award has previously gone to figures and initiatives active in law, journalism, film, human rights and civil society.
Past recipients include former Polish Supreme Court first president Małgorzata Gersdorf and former German Federal Constitutional Court judge Gertrude Lübbe-Wolff in 2021; violence-prevention advocate Judy Korn and investigative journalist Harald Schumann in 2019; filmmakers Haifaa al-Mansour and Jafar Panahi in 2016; and the Progressive Lawyers’ Association (ÇHD) of Turkey, in 2014.
The German award is the latest international recognition for İmamoğlu since his imprisonment.
In March he was granted the 2026 Mayor Paweł Adamowicz Award at a ceremony in Brussels, with the prize accepted on his behalf by acting İstanbul mayor Nuri Aslan.
That award recognizes public figures and activists who promote freedom, solidarity and equality in the spirit of Paweł Adamowicz, the former mayor of Gdańsk who was murdered in 2019 while carrying out his public duties.
International concern over İmamoğlu’s imprisonment has grown in recent months.
The German Association of Cities, or Deutscher Städtetag, issued a statement on March 16 calling for the release of İmamoğlu and other jailed local politicians in Turkey, saying their detention and removal from office violated the rule of law and raised serious doubts about the independence of the Turkish judiciary.
The Turkish government denies the investigations into İmamoğlu are politically motivated and says the judiciary acts independently.
