Jailed Turkish opposition leader Ekrem İmamoğlu on Saturday called for unity against what he called his "unlawful" arrest, in a letter read at a large Istanbul rally. "I am not afraid at all. Because our dear nation is united,

The arrest and recent imprisonment of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu sent shockwaves through Turkey, marking a decisive shift toward full autocracy. On March 19, police officers — acting on instructions from the ruling Justice and Development Party,

Hundreds of thousands of protesters have congregated in Istanbul to how their support for the city's imprisoned mayor and demand his release. Turkey's main opposition party, the Republican People's Party (CHP) organised the demonstration,

A new development has emerged in the ongoing protests sparked by the detention of İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu. The first indictment has been prepared against those who participated in the İmamoğlu protests.

Erdoğan's arrest of the Istanbul mayor is aimed at quelling an increasingly vocal political opposition. But Ekrem İmamoğlu is also indispensable to the Turkish president as a symbol of religious toleration — and a foil to Erdoğan's Islamist ideal.

Istanbul’s jailed Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, the top rival to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, said his lawyer had also been arrested on false pretenses. “There is no end to lies or slander … This time, my lawyer Mehmet Pehlivan was detained on fictitious grounds,” İmamoğlu wrote late Thursday night.

Turkish President Erdogan's crackdown on pro-democracy protesters leads to over 1,000 arrests following the jailing of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu.

Amid massive protests over the arrest of Istanbul’s mayor, Ekrem İmamoğlu, a demonstrator dressed in a Pikachu costume joined the crowds, marching alongside thousands of others expressing outrage. But as riot police moved in with water cannons to break up the protest, the costumed activist was seen fleeing—a moment that has since gone viral since.

Ekrem İmamoğlu, the mayor of Istanbul, was arrested early in the morning of Wednesday, 19 March, on two charges