Turkey’s main opposition leaders vowed Thursday to «end tyranny» and form a nationwide coalition to replace President Recep Tayyip Erdogan after the mayor of the city of Istanbul, Ekrem Imamoglu, was sentenced Wednesday to two years and seven months in prison for insulting members of the country’s Supreme Electoral Council (YSK).
The opposition has called for an end to its «repressive regime» ahead of elections scheduled for June 2023, while Imamoglu himself has urged «dismantling the regime» despite «how harsh the repression is.»
This is what he said during a demonstration organized in protest against the sentence imposed against him, which also includes a disqualification from holding office, which could mean his departure from the mayor’s office.
Thousands of people have attended the first large-scale event organized by this opposition bloc, which has shown itself united. «We are not afraid. I have the backing of 16 million Istanbulites,» he said before adding that Turkey «is at a crossroads.»
«The opposition can replace Erdogan through common sense and the idea of a common future,» he pointed out before a crowd that shouted slogans such as «law, law and justice».
Imamoglu, of the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), plans to appeal the sentence against him. The incumbent mayor won the Istanbul mayoralty by a narrow margin in the March 2019 elections, in which he faced an Erdogan ally. The results were rejected by the relevant authorities and, after a new vote was held in June 2019, he won with a larger margin, which was a major setback for the president and the ruling party.
The NGO Human Rights Watch has condemned the verdict and lamented that it is a «politically calculated assault» aimed at «sidelining and silencing leading opposition figures.»
The authorities of the United States and the European Union have also joined the human rights organizations in criticizing the verdict.
