A delegation from the Council of Europe (CoE) visited İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu in jail this week, marking the first international meeting with the opposition figure since his arrest in March, and issued a statement condemning his pretrial detention, Turkish Minute reported.
The delegation from the CoE’s Congress of Local and Regional Authorities was led by congress president Marc Cools and included senior congress officials and rapporteurs on local democracy and human rights.
İmamoğlu, the strongest political rival of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the main opposition Republican People’s Party’s (CHP) presidential candidate, was detained on March 19 and arrested four days later on corruption charges that are mostly seen as political. The Interior Ministry subsequently suspended him from his position of mayor.
His arrest and removal from office have sparked the largest anti-government protests in Turkey since the 2013 Gezi Park demonstrations.
The CoE delegation’s visit followed the congress’s March 27 declaration condemning the dismissal and detention of elected mayors in Turkey. After their meetings in the country on May 5–6, the delegation issued a statement strongly criticizing İmamoğlu’s imprisonment and broader crackdowns on local democracy.
“Following our substantial exchange of views with Mr. İmamoğlu we remain convinced that it is unacceptable, under the rule of law, to deprive Istanbul of its elected mayor by detaining him without trial or substantiated charges, and we reiterate our call for his immediate release,” the congress said in its official statement.
The statement said İmamoğlu’s pretrial detention constitutes a violation of his “fundamental human rights” and seriously hampers the ability of local governance in the largest city of Turkey to function effectively in serving the needs of its citizens.
İmamoğlu won the elections in İstanbul twice in 2019 when the first election result was contested by Erdoğan’s party on the grounds that there were irregularities. He was re-elected in the local polls last year in a development that dashed Erdoğan’s hopes to take back the city from the opposition.
The congress also condemned the ongoing arrests of local elected officials and municipal staff across Turkey, warning that their replacement without due process or evidence-based trials “undermines fundamental democratic principles.”
“In particular, replacements of mayors by appointed trustees must stop and allegations of terrorism, a phenomenon that we are all fighting, can in no way justify replacing mayors by government administrators. These actions effectively disregard the will of the citizens expressed through the ballot box,” the congress added.
Erdoğan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), which suffered its worst election defeat in the local elections of last year, has been targeting the CHP mayors and city officials in İstanbul over the past eight months, which led to the removal from office and arrest of many CHP district mayors in İstanbul in addition to the arrest of dozens of city officials.
Several mayors from the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) have also been removed from office and arrested as part of the government’s crackdown on the opposition.
The delegation reiterated its demand for the immediate release of İmamoğlu and other detained mayors, including Van Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Abdullah Zeydan from the DEM Party, warning that the replacement of elected mayors with government-appointed trustees erodes the essence of democracy and threatens pluralism in Turkey.
The Council of Europe delegation included Bryony Rudkin of the United Kingdom, rapporteur on local democracy in Turkey; Gudrun Mosler-Törnström of Austria, standing rapporteur on human rights; and Secretary General Mathieu Mori.
