The Turkish government is cracking down on social media users amid protests against the arrest of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s most prominent rival.
Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu was one of more than 100 politicians, journalists, and activists arrested this week in a campaign accused of suppressing dissent ahead of the next presidential election. Now, the detainments have expanded in scope to target users of social media deemed a threat.
“Thirty-seven suspects were caught, and efforts are continuing to catch the other suspects,” Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said Thursday of the new batch of arrests, according to the BBC.
He referred to those arrested as “suspect account managers” who are accused of “inciting the public to hatred and hostility” and “incitement to commit a crime.”
Demonstrations took place across Istanbul, a city with a large base of support for Imamogul’s Republican People’s Party, demanding the immediate release of the would-be presidential candidate and all others arrested in the detainments.
Protesters accuse Erdogan and his government of orchestrating the detainments as a form of political repression due to Imamoglu’s rising popularity with the electorate.
Justice and Development Party spokesman Omer Celik said Erdogan, who is a member, “can only be associated with democracy — on the opposite side of a coup.”
“What a politician should do is to follow the judicial process,” Celik told reporters. “None of us have any information about the content of the [criminal] file.”
Around the same time as his arrest, Istanbul University named Imamoglu one of 28 students who participated in its English-language program in 1990 whose accreditation contained “clear errors.” The mayor was stripped of his diploma, which will make him ineligible for the presidency.
Imamoglu rejected the decision as further sabotage against his political campaign and a violation of universities’ role as “sacred spaces” in Turkey.
The detained politician released a statement via social media on Thursday expressing both solidarity with protesters and grim warnings about the possibility of political suppression in Turkey.
“I have foreseen and warned my nation about this,” Imamoglu said. “The same mentality that seized my diploma will also target your belongings, your honour, and your property, committing all forms of plunder and assault. As a nation, we must stand united against this evil. This is my call to my people: Our nation is greater.”
The social media post called for Turkish judges to “address this handful of your colleagues who are tarnishing our judiciary” and for Justice and Development Party politicians to “transcend political affiliations and ideals” and “speak out” against the crackdowns.
“In this land, the saying ‘let the snake that doesn’t bite me live a thousand years’ must not hold,” Imamoglu concluded in his statement. “Instead, I call on everyone to declare, ‘Even the snake not harming me personally, cannot find refuge in our lands,’ and to raise their voices accordingly. Our nation is great. Sovereignty belongs to the nation, unconditionally and without exception.”
IS IT POSSIBLE TO BE PRO-TURKEY BUT NOT PRO-HAMAS?
The Republican People’s Party primary election, which Imamogul hoped to win, is scheduled for Sunday.
Even if Imamogul is released ahead of the election, the revocation of his college diploma stands as an obstacle to his ability to run for the nation’s highest office.
