Recent polls have shown that Imamoglu is among a small group of opposition figures who could defeat Erdogan in a consequential presidential election in June. Erdogan’s popularity has been dented by his management of the economy, which has suffered from skyrocketing inflation, rising unemployment and the collapse of the local currency.
Imamoglu, speaking Wednesday night to supporters in Istanbul, called the court’s decision an “ugly result.”
“Everything will be great in 2023,” he added. “Let Ankara hear, let Ankara who intervened in that court today, hear.”
Imamoglu, 52, a member of the opposition Republican People’s Party, or CHP, rose to prominence in 2019 after defeating a candidate from Erdogan’s ruling party in the race for mayor of Istanbul — a political thunderbolt that handed the opposition control of Turkey’s largest city for the first time in decades.
Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party, or AKP, challenged the initial vote, which was overturned by the state election council. Imamoglu, though, handily won the revote, a stunning defeat for the president that cemented the mayor’s stature as a figure who threatened the AKP’s dominance. The mayor has not declared his candidacy for the upcoming elections, which are also being held for parliament.
The charges stem from comments Imamoglu made about his election, apparently in response to Turkey’s interior minister, who called Imamoglu a “fool.” Imamoglu fired back by saying that those “who canceled the March 31 elections are the fools,” in what prosecutors subsequently claimed was an insult directed at the state election board.
Prosecutors had sought a sentence of four years in prison. The president’s critics have called Imamoglu’s prosecution a barely disguised attempt to prevent him from running next year. The government has repeatedly insisted that Turkish courts act independently.
Turkey’s recent political history has shown that court convictions are not necessarily a bar to higher office. Erdogan, who served as Istanbul mayor in the 1990s, was later stripped of his post, banned from office and imprisoned after a court ruled that a poem he recited during a speech had incited religious hatred. The court decision was widely seen as an attempt to curb Erdogan’s rising popularity.
Meral Aksener, the head of the nationalist Good Party, which is allied with the CHP, said at the rally with Imamoglu that Wednesday’s verdict reflected a “fear of you, of democracy and the will of the people.” She referenced Erdogan’s past, saying, “years ago, there was a mayor who was convicted for a poem he read here,” as the crowd booed the mention of the president.
“That metropolitan mayor called out to Istanbulites and said, ‘This song does not end here.’ And today, I say this here,” she continued, referring to Imamoglu: “This song will not end here.”
