Ekrem İmamoğlu in May, 2023 -- public domain image
Statement by TKP Central Committee regarding the detention orders in Turkey today, including that of CHP's İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality Mayor, Ekrem İmamoğlu:
We call on our people to organize against AKP’s tyranny
More than 100 people, including CHP’s (main opposition party - Republican People's Party) İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, were issued detention orders today. İmamoğlu has long been a target of the government, given his potential candidacy as CHP’s presidential nominee.
Communist Party of Turkey (TKP) views the issue in the context of the AKP’s (Justice and Development Party) attacks aimed at narrowing the political space and usurpation of people’s right to engage in politics. Today, TKP released the following statement accordingly:
"As of this morning, the detention order issued for more than 100 people, including Istanbul Metropolitan Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu and journalist İsmail Saymaz, is unacceptable. The Istanbul Governorship’s decisions, which effectively impose a state of emergency in the city out of concern for potential public reactions, are also part of this unacceptable situation.
The words "pressure" and "lawlessness" fall short in describing what is happening. We are faced with a reactionary mindset that perceives the people’s right to organize and engage in politics as a threat, alongside its practices that completely disregard justice. The AKP government, which represents the full darkness of this system of religious sects and monopolies, is failing to rule the country and thus becoming more and more aggressive.
The consecutive steps taken against İmamoğlu, regardless of their individual content, point to a single fact: AKP does not tolerate the people’s right to vote and be elected if the outcome is not in its favor.
The detention of journalist İsmail Saymaz on alleged links to the Gezi Resistance is nothing more than a denial of the people’s right to political engagement and have a say on the way of the country is being ruled.
The public will that emerged during the Gezi Resistance could not be exploited despite attempts by international forces or AKP’s own allies; nor could the struggle for the Republic, secularism, and independence be undermined. Moreover, the so-called "Arab Spring," with which the Gezi Resistance has been falsely associated, was part of imperialist plans and interventions in the region—plans in which AKP was both involved and complicit. Meanwhile, Soros, often mentioned in this context, represents an international financial network with which both the AKP and its former ally, the Fethullah Gülen sect, openly collaborated in dismantling the Turkish Republic.
Defending the people’s right to organize and participate in politics will be the strongest response to these irrational impositions.
Our party, which has maintained an unwavering stance against the AKP from the very beginning, opposes these reckless attacks on the political arena. Our ideological, political, and class-based differences with the line represented by Ekrem İmamoğlu do not prevent us from taking this stance. TKP will stand against all of AKP’s attempts to suppress universal suffrage and restrict the political space. We will adjust our political agenda and priorities accordingly, recognizing that AKP has chosen to escalate its political and legal assaults.
All those detained today, including Ekrem İmamoğlu and İsmail Saymaz, must be released immediately.
We call on our people to organize against AKP’s tyranny and to strengthen the alternative of the working people to build a country which is republican, ruled with a state-led economy, enlightenment and working class patriotism oriented, against a system suffering from an increasingly deep ruling crisis."
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