Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, reinstated by a court as leader of Turkey’s Republican People’s Party (CHP), said Tuesday that jailed İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu was not a political prisoner but signaled that the two politicians’ parties could cooperate if İmamoğlu can run for president.
“He is not a political prisoner. He was not jailed because of his political views,” Kılıçdaroğlu said in an interview with Euronews Turkish.
Kılıçdaroğlu argued that İmamoğlu’s presidential candidacy and the criminal cases against him should be treated separately.
“The presidential candidacy is one thing. These cases are another,” he said, adding that he had voted for İmamoğlu in the CHP primary that selected him as its presidential candidate.
Kılıçdaroğlu said public officeholders should be ready to account for their actions and “every penny” spent under their supervision.
He nonetheless opposed İmamoğlu’s pretrial detention and said the mayor should have been allowed to remain in office during the proceedings.
“He can be tried, but I did not think his detention was right. I still hold the same view,” Kılıçdaroğlu said.
Kılıçdaroğlu also left room for cooperation with İmamoğlu, who has since joined the New Party, founded by ousted CHP leader Özgür Özel.
He said opposition parties would need to meet for talks if the legal barriers facing İmamoğlu were removed and he entered the presidential race.
“How will you get 51 percent? By cooperating. How will you get it without cooperation?” Kılıçdaroğlu said.
He answered “always” when asked whether he was open to consultations and negotiations.
Kılıçdaroğlu also offered to meet with Özel and said he had instructed CHP provincial leaders not to criticize the New Party.
He acknowledged that the split had weakened the CHP but claimed that the party’s voter base had not followed the lawmakers who left.
A Turkish appeals court annulled the CHP’s 2023 congress on May 21 over alleged voting irregularities, removing Özel and the party leadership and restoring Kılıçdaroğlu and his team.
Özel had defeated Kılıçdaroğlu at that congress after Kılıçdaroğlu lost the 2023 presidential election to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
The CHP called the ruling a “judicial coup,” while rights groups warned that court interference in an opposition party’s leadership threatened political participation.
Özel and 90 other lawmakers later formed the New Party, which has 91 seats and is now the second largest party in parliament, while the CHP has 44.
İmamoğlu left the CHP and joined the New Party in August.
He has been jailed pending trial since March 2025 on charges that include leading a criminal organization, bribery and bid rigging in contracts issued by the İstanbul municipality.
İmamoğlu denies the accusations and says the case seeks to remove President Erdoğan’s strongest election rival.
His university degree was annulled shortly before his selection as a presidential candidate, leaving him unable to run under a constitutional rule requiring that presidential candidates have a university degree.
A court rejected his challenge to the cancellation in January, and his lawyers announced plans to appeal.
Opposition parties, rights groups and several Western leaders have described his detention as politically motivated.
Kılıçdaroğlu’s comments prompted responses from İmamoğlu’s wife, Dilek İmamoğlu, and New Party lawmaker Sezgin Tanrıkulu.
Dilek İmamoğlu described her husband as a “political hostage” who had been deprived of his freedom for 18 months and accused unnamed figures of distorting the truth.
Whether someone is a political prisoner cannot be decided only by looking at the charges and must also take into account the person’s political role, relationship with the government and the timing of the detention, Tanrıkulu said.
This article is republished from Turkish Minute.
