DEM Party's 'İmamoğlu' call to the government

As part of a large-scale operation conducted against the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, detention warrants were issued for Istanbul Metropolitan Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu and 102 other individuals.

The prosecutor's office has launched two separate investigations.

While the first investigation includes accusations of "cooperating with the PKK" and "hiring PKK members," the second investigation concerns corruption and bribery.

There are 7 people involved in the terrorism investigation and 95 people in the corruption investigation.

The DEM Party Central Executive Committee (MYK) issued a statement regarding the investigations in which İBB Mayor İmamoğlu was detained.

"We are making an open call to the government: Abandon these practices immediately. Stop instrumentalizing the judiciary," the statement said, adding, "Release those detained today, especially Ekrem İmamoğlu, immediately."

The full statement from the DEM Party MYK is as follows:

"This morning, Istanbul Metropolitan Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, Şişli Mayor Resul Emrah Şahan, municipal officials, and numerous people, including journalists, were detained.

As we have stated many times before, all of these practices are acts of a coup. Turkey is experiencing a civil coup process that is becoming increasingly evident and is a 'joint production of the judiciary and the government' targeting all political and social opposition.

The unlawful, arbitrary, and anti-democratic practices that have been carried out against our party and our politics for years have unfortunately taken all of Turkey hostage at this stage. This trustee-appointing and coup-plotting mentality is the greatest conspiracy ever set against the future of Turkey and its society.

All of the justifications put forward in the detention operation are excuses that will not cover up this coup and lawlessness. Targeting the urban consensus, democratic politics, and political cooperation is an act of indigestion and revenge for the defeat suffered in the local elections. Both yesterday's trustee appointments and today's operation are attacks on the popular will. It is an attempt to eliminate political rivals and maintain power for the future.

What is happening today is also an attack aimed at breaking the hopes of the peoples of Turkey for peace and democracy. It is an effort to sabotage the initiative for change that would start in Turkey and spread to the Middle East. We never accept this. These practices will never benefit Turkey or those who approve of them. Just as in the past, all of these practices will backfire in the conscience of society today.

Our party will continue to expand its struggle to broaden the space for democratic politics under all conditions and circumstances. It will stand against lawlessness, coups, and arbitrariness, no matter who they come from. It will defend urban consensus, joint struggle, democracy, peace, and freedom with greater determination than ever before.

We are making an open call to the government: Abandon these practices immediately. Stop instrumentalizing the judiciary. Release those detained today, especially Ekrem İmamoğlu, immediately."