Despite protests being declared illegal, people in Istanbul are on the streets, specifically around universities. A protest at the Istanbul city hall is planned for tonight. Turkish media is not allowed to report freely on demonstrations, and visitors to Istanbul should be careful and avoid getting involved.
The world, including EU countries such as Germany, condemning the detention of Istanbul mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu on March 19, 2025, along with approximately 106 other municipal officials and politicians, is a politically motivated move to stifle lawful political activities, Human Rights Watch said today.
The Istanbul Governorship imposed a sudden measure on March 19, 2025, closing multiple metro stations as part of heightened security protocols. This decision has immediately affected the daily commutes of thousands of residents relying on the metro for travel to work and school.
Visitors told eTurboNews that transportation, even by taxi to the airport, is complex and may be interrupted. Social media has been blocked on numerous channels, making communication a challenge.
The official version: The decision to implement these metro closures comes amid growing concerns about safety in crowded urban areas, showcasing the administration’s commitment to securing public transport facilities.
Istanbul, as a major city, attracts a vast number of commuters, making infrastructure security an ongoing priority for local governance.l
The mayor’s arbitrary detention undermines the rights of the voters who elected him and the broader democratic process in Türkiye.
The Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office ordered İmamoglu and others detained in the scope of two separate criminal investigations against him. The move came just days before March 23, when he is set to be nominated by the Republican People’s Party (Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi, CHP), Türkiye’s main opposition party, to run against President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in a presidential election in the next three years.
“Ekrem İmamoğlu and others detained should be released from police custody immediately,” said Hugh Williamson, Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The Erdoğan presidency should ensure that the results of the Istanbul municipal elections are respected and that the criminal justice system is not weaponized for political ends.”
The Istanbul prosecutor’s office has engaged in a string of politically motivated investigations and detentions over the past five months against municipalities governed by the Republican People’s Party. The two latest investigations against İmamoglu, one concerning alleged links to terrorism and the other alleged corruption, fit that pattern.
Those detained on March 19 included the mayors of two Istanbul districts, Şişli and Beylikdüzü.
Prosecutors have initiated five criminal cases against İmamoğlu, all based on scant evidence of any criminal activity. On March 18, Istanbul University stripped him of his university diploma. Legal experts in Türkiye widely condemned the move as an abuse of the university’s authority in an effort to prevent him from being eligible to run for the presidency.
On the day of the detentions, the Istanbul governor’s office banned public assemblies and demonstrations in Istanbul between March 19 and 23. Internet users in Istanbul experienced bandwidth reduction on the internet (internet throttling), restricting access to social media and news sites.
Before the detentions on March 19, three district mayors and many municipal council members from the Republican People’s Party had already been placed in pretrial detention as a result of the Istanbul chief prosecutor’s dubious investigations into terrorism links and corruption.
The move to accuse the Republican People’s Party of terrorism links with the armed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) began with the October 30, 2024 arrest and removal of Ahmet Özer, a 65-year-old university professor who is the mayor of the Esenyurt district of Istanbul. On the same day, a court ordered his pretrial detention on allegations of “membership” of the PKK, and the authorities removed him from office, appointing the Istanbul deputy governor in his place.
On February 13, 10 of the party’s elected council members were detained on charges of “membership of the PKK.” All had been elected to municipal positions as part of a political strategy by the Republican People’s Party and the pro-Kurdish rights Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM) to cooperate in the local elections.
The prosecutor’s accusations in those investigations rest on the unsubstantiated premise that all of the politicians were operating under the instructions of the PKK or that they were working for an organ of the PKK under the guise of an opposition platform, the Peoples’ Democratic Congress, which encompasses Kurdish and leftist groups as well as civil society organizations. The platform, set up in 2011, has not been banned or closed down.
The authorities have also cited terrorism investigations and charges as the reason to replace elected mayors with government-appointed officials in 10 municipalities in southeastern Türkiye controlled by the DEM Party and two municipalities controlled by the Republican People’s Party, including Esenyurt.
The authoritarian and highly centralized presidential Turkish government of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has set back Türkiye’s human rights record by decades, targeting perceived government critics and political opponents, profoundly undermining the independence of the judiciary, and hollowing out democratic institutions.
Türkiye has withdrawn from the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (the Istanbul Convention). It is subject to a Council of Europe infringement procedure for failing to implement a judgment of the European Court of Human Rights ordering the release of jailed human rights defender Osman Kavala.