Thousands rally in Istanbul for jailed Mayor Imamoglu

One year after the arrest of Istanbul's popular mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, thousands of Turks gathered in central Istanbul Wednesday in a defiant show of support,  a reminder that despite everything, the opposition refuses to be silenced.

But the rally also underscored a darker reality: Turkey's democratic institutions are being systematically dismantled, one court ruling, one arrest and one politically convenient charge at a time.

Imamoglu, 55, is accused of leading a criminal organisation through tender-rigging and bribery. He denies all charges. What he cannot deny is the timing, arrested precisely when polls showed him as the strongest challenger to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in any future presidential race.

"Erdogan is using the courts to get rid of his rival," CHP leader Ozgur Ozel told Reuters bluntly. "There is a price to pay for this."

The government, predictably, insists courts operate independently. But when the main opposition party faces an unprecedented judicial crackdown, when its presidential candidate sits in pre-trial detention, when rights groups across the world describe the case as emblematic of judicial collapse, the claim of independence strains credulity beyond its breaking point.

Erdogan's Turkey has followed a now-familiar authoritarian playbook. First, control the media,  Turkey is one of the world's leading jailers of journalists. Then, reshape the judiciary, packed with loyalists after the 2016 coup attempt. Then, eliminate political rivals, through prosecutions timed with surgical precision to coincide with electoral cycles.

Imamoglu is not the first. He will not be the last. But his case is perhaps the most brazen — targeting the mayor of Turkey's largest city, a man who defeated Erdogan's chosen candidate twice in Istanbul and whose popularity only grew with each attempt to suppress him.

15 Million Voices

The CHP says 15 million Turks have expressed support for Imamoglu as their presidential candidate. His wife addressed Wednesday's rally as the crowd chanted "Rights, law, justice », words that have become almost revolutionary in a country where all three are increasingly contingent on political loyalty.

Ozel forecasts that pressure on the opposition will intensify ahead of elections — which he believes Erdogan will seek in late 2027. He frames the contest in stark terms: "The next general elections are a referendum on whether democrats or autocrats will rule. If we win, a very strong democracy will be built."

Turkey remains a NATO member, a fact that grows more uncomfortable with each passing judicial outrage. Alliance partners have largely avoided direct confrontation with Ankara, prioritizing strategic interests over democratic principles.

But a NATO member that jails its main opposition leader, dismantles judicial independence and uses prosecution as an electoral weapon is not a democracy in any meaningful sense. It is an autocracy with a flag and a membership card.

Erdogan has spent over two decades building a system in which he is increasingly irreplaceable,  and in which any challenger faces the full weight of a justice system that serves power rather than law.

Imamoglu remains in detention. The opposition remains defiant. And Turkey remains suspended between the democracy it once aspired to be and the autocracy it is becoming, one politically motivated arrest at a time.

The crowd in Istanbul chanted "Rights, law, justice" on Wednesday.

In Erdogan's Turkey, all three are now subject to approval.