Mayor of Istanbul organizes protests against his verdict

Opposition to the Turkish president, the mayor of Istanbul and a possible candidate for the Turkish presidency, Ekrem Imamoglu, organized a rally of opposition supporters on December 15. Imamoglu’s call for a protest demonstration came after he was sentenced on December 14 to 2 years, 7 months and 15 days in prison, and also deprived of the right to engage in political activities. This decision is not yet final, Turkish Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag told the Turkish edition of Milliyet, the mayor is still at large. He was convicted of slandering members of the Turkish Central Election Commission in 2019, whom he publicly called idiots for canceling the results of the mayoral election, which he won (he also won a repeat election).

“The nation stands up for its will together with its leaders,” Imamoglu wrote, calling for the rally. The event was attended by the leader of the largest opposition political force – the Kemalist (supporters of the secular path of development of the founder of the Republic of Turkey Mustafa Kemal) Republican People’s Party Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, the chairman of the second most important opposition in the Good Party alliance Meral Akşener and leaders of other parties. No disturbances were reported at the time of the issue.