Popular Fury Grows in Turkey Against Tyrannical Erdoğan Emboldened by Trump

International outrage and charges of "viciousness" and "outright autocracy" have followed Sunday's imprisonment of Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's top political rival, the popular Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, who is seen as Erdogan's likeliest opposition challenger in upcoming national elections.

The corruption charges levied against İmamoğlu, a member of the Republican People's Party (CHP), are seen as politically motivated and follow days of sustained protests by opposition voices opposed to Erdoğan's increasingly authoritarian rule.

Tens of thousands marched and clashed with riot police after fresh protests erupted Sunday in Istanbul and elsewhere in the country following the court's actions against İmamoğlu and on Monday, the CHP announced that nearly 15 million people, members and non-members alike, participated in national primaries to support the jailed mayor's candidacy to face off against Erdoğan in the next election.

The non-member vote of more than 13 million, "could indicate," reportsNBC News, "that İmamoğlu, 54, enjoys wide public support beyond the party faithful. The party's chairman said it showed the need for early elections."

Writing for Politico Europe, opinion editor Jamie Dettmer argues that that timing of Erdoğan's targeting of İmamoğlu has everything to do with the return of U.S. President Donald Trump to the international scene.

Erdoğan, Dettmer wrote on Saturday, "has spent years eroding democracy, stifling dissent and purging the country's army and civil service. Now, it looks as though he's chosen this geopolitical moment to bury the legacy of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the secular founder of the Republic of Turkey." He continued:

Erdoğan would harbor no worries as to Trump’s disapproval. The two have lavished priase on each other for years, and the Turkish leader has said he supports his American counterpart’s peace initiative in Ukraine—no doubt music to Trump’s ears.

Erdoğan isn't alone among the once embattled autocrats—and would-be autocrats—sniffing the change in the geopolitical air, and reckoning they're on the cusp of a new era, able to erase the rules and norms of old and replace them with ones more to their liking. It's influencing their behavior as they look to each other for inspiration and new ideas for running their respective countries—whether it be weaponizing policies affecting sexual minorities, scapegoating migrants, sharpening attacks on independent media, transforming public broadcasters into government mouthpieces or just closing them down.

Since his arrest on March 19, the ousted mayor has denied all charges against him and urged his supporters to continue protests in the face of the government crackdown.

"I totally believe these are bogus charges," Emre Can Erdogdu, a university student in Istanbul who attended street protests Sunday night, told the New York Times. "We entirely lost our trust in the government."

Erdogdu said he feared for the future of Turkey. "A person who could be the next president is now out of politics. It is not just about Istanbul. It is about all of Turkey."

Özgür Özel, the CHP chair, said the imprisonment would not dampen the party's prospects, but only further ignite the growing opposition. "Starting from tomorrow morning," he said from Istanbul on Sunday evening, "we will initiate a great struggle by harnessing the power of organization and using this strength for the good sake of all of us."

He called for "all democrats and all those who care the future of Turkey" to come out in sustained protest.

According to the Hürriyet Daily News, over 1,100 people have been arrested since mass protests erupted last week over İmamoğlu's initial arrest. Criticism only grew the court on Sunday stripped him of his position and sent him to prison.

"By arresting his main political rival," said human rights advocate and scholar Kenneth Roth, "Erdoğan shows he is too fearful of losing to risk even a managed election."

Roth said Erdoğan, an ally of U.S. President Donald Trump, would rather "opt for an electoral charade" than hold free and fair elections.

With Turkish officials set to visit the United States this week to visit with U.S. counterparts, world's richest man Elon Musk, who has taken a seat as a top advisor to Trump, is under fire for blocking accounts of opposition figures in Turkey on his social media platform X.

As Politicoreported over the weekend:

The majority of the suspended accounts were "university-associated activist accounts, basically sharing protest information, locations for students to go," Yusuf Can,coordinator and analyst at the Wilson Center's Middle East Program, told POLITICO. Many of these accounts are "grassroots activists" with their followings in the low tens of thousands, said Can.

Some accounts appear to be suspended only in Turkey and not in the rest of the world. Activist Ömer Faruk Aslan created a second account to avoid censorship. "Yesterday, my account was blocked by a court order because the tweets exceeded 6 million views," he posted.

Last week, Human Rights Watch said that İmamoğlu's arrest, as well as the targeting of other opposition figures, was politically motivated and an assault on the rule of law.

"Ekrem İmamoğlu and others detained should be released from police custody immediately," said Hugh Williamson, Europe and Central Asia director for the group. "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."