Tülay Hatimoğulları and Tuncer Bakırhan, co-chairs of Turkey’s pro-Kurdish People’s Democracy and Equality (DEM) Party, have strongly condemned the decision to formally arrest Mayor of Istanbul Ekrem İmamoğlu, calling it a ‘political coup’ against justice and democracy in Turkey.
In a post shared on X, DEM Party co-chair Tülay Hatimoğulları has strongly condemned the decision as an attack on justice and democracy and a black stain on Turkey’s history, and demanded the immediate release of İmamoğlu and those arrested with him.
Noting that the city of Istanbul is representative of the whole country, she said that the decision to formally arrest its elected mayor in violation of the will of its people “will be the shame of this government”, saying that no-one has the right to use the judiciary to interfere with the will of 85 million people for the sake of their own interests, referring to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Hatimoğulları said that the current government under Erdoğan “will go down in history as the greatest conspirators, who played with the lives of 85 million people for the sake of their own power”.
Tuncer Bakırhan also strongly denounced the formal arrest of İmamoğlu and his associates, saying it was politically motivated and based on fabricated grounds. He said the decision is a violation of the will of “16 million citizens”, (the population of Istanbul), noting that it will cause increased tension and unrest within society and “great damage to the internal peace” of Turkey.
“I condemn in the strongest terms this unlawfulness that flies in the face of the right of the people of Istanbul to vote, and transforms the judiciary into an instrument of political intervention. I call for a swift reversal of this decision,” Bakirhan said, affirming that his party will continue to protest against the decision.
