Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan faces the most significant political crisis of his career, as thousands of Turks have taken to the streets in opposition to his authoritarian regime. The protests, which initially began in Istanbul, have rapidly spread to more than 55 of the country’s 81 provinces and show no signs of waning, representing the most substantial challenge to Erdogan and his AKP (Justice and Development Party) since the Gezi Park protests of 2013. While the catalyst for this movement was the arrest and ousting of Istanbul’s mayor, Ekrem Imamoglu, the event has merely unleashed the long-standing frustration among Turks with Erdogan’s policies of democratic erosion and economic mismanagement.

Imamoglu assumed the position of Mayor of Istanbul in 2019 and has since been re-elected twice, a testament to his exceptional popularity. He is the prominent figure of the centre-left, pro-secularist CHP (Republican People’s Party), Turkey’s leading opposition party, which has gradually strengthened its influence in the country’s political landscape in recent years. Most notably, the CHP dealt a blow to the AKP by securing victories in 35 out of 81 provinces in the March 2024 municipal elections, including Turkey’s largest metropolitan economic centres, Istanbul and Ankara.

The catalyst for the current wave of protests occurred on March 19, when Imamoglu was........

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