The presidential elections in Türkiye may be three years away, but President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan seems to have already fired his first salvo. On March 19, his government arrested Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, a prominent opposition figure of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), on allegations of corruption and terrorism. The action came just days before the party was set to formally approve his nomination as its presidential candidate for the 2028 elections, which it did on March 24, where he is now expected to challenge President Erdoğan.

With a Turkish court formally endorsing İmamoğlu’s detention pending the conclusion of a trial, the move has provoked widespread protests and nationwide anti-government demonstrations, resulting in the mass detention of thousands over the past week. Such an action against a sitting mayor of the country’s largest metropolis exemplifies a well-established pattern in Erdoğan’s enduring campaign of political consolidation.

It also highlights İmamoğlu’s rise as a credible challenger to the incumbent president. Furthermore, it demonstrates the Erdoğan government’s deliberate weaponisation of the judiciary and administrative apparatuses as instruments to neutralise political opponents and suppress dissent, symbolising Türkiye’s descent into full-blown authoritarianism.

Erdoğan, often regarded as the poster boy of Islamist politics in Türkiye, has maintained an unrelenting dominance over the country’s political landscape for more than two decades. His political journey began as a moderate conservative affiliated with the Islamist Welfare Party, which was banned in 1986 on charges of contravening the constitutional principles of secularism.

Erdoğan’s first significant foray into political power came in 1994 when he was elected mayor of Istanbul, a position deemed one of the most influential in the country. Subsequently, in 2001, he established the Justice and Development Party (AKP), an Islamist political party seen as a successor of the Welfare Party.........

© News18