Starmer cannot be silent on mayor’s arrest, says Turkey’s opposition leader

The leader of Turkey’s main opposition party has hit out at the Labour Party’s silence over the arrest of Istanbul’s popular mayor and the ensuing crackdown on protests calling for his release.  

Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), told The i Paper: “I want to hear [Keir] Starmer’s voice.”

He said he was disappointed with the response from Labour, which only commented on the arrest of Ekrem Imamoglu, the CHP candidate for Turkey’s 2028 presidential election, after a week to declare its support for democracy in Turkey.

Imamoglu, seen as a chief rival to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was detained last month on charges of corruption that he, European leaders and rights groups say are politically motivated and aimed at preventing him from becoming Turkey’s next president.

Since his imprisonment, protests have broken out across Turkey, which Erdogan has tried to ban, with police arresting over 2,000 people.

Last month, following what Ozel saw as a muted response from Labour over Imamoglu’s arrest, he threatened to block a potential Labour Party application for readmission to the Socialist International global political movement, in a symbolic expression of discontent.

The CHP is a member of the Socialist International while Labour holds observer status.

Following this, ambassador Neil Holland, head of the UK’s delegation to the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe gave a speech in Vienna and said that they were closely monitoring the situation in Turkey and had raised recent events with the Turkish government.

However, Ozel said this was not enough and was not the solidarity that he expected from what he saw as a “sister party”.

“They’re speaking in small letters, it cannot be this quiet,” he told The i Paper.

In a press conference on Saturday after meeting with other European Socialists, Ozel added: “It’s not befitting to ignore what Erdoğan is doing here based on the picture and equation in Syria. Particularly not befitting the Labour Party. There are friends here who are making efforts to make our relations much better. I thank them both for this and this important support.”

On Sunday Ozel was re-elected party leader at an extraordinary congress in Ankara. Since becoming CHP leader in 2023, he has revitalised Turkey’s opposition and led the party to victory in the local elections in 2024 for the first time since 1977.

Ozel addressed a rally near the congress venue after his re-election, repeating his party’s call for early elections.

Ozel said his party would keep demonstrating against Imamoglu’s jailing and call for early elections by organising a protest in one of Turkey’s cities every weekend, with rallies in different Istanbul districts on Wednesday evenings.

Next Saturday, Ozel will start from Samsun, the city in which the founder of the Turkish republic, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, initiated the war of independence on 19 May 1919. “Just like he went first to Samsun, we will start from Samsun,” he said. “Then we will hold huge rallies in various parts of Anatolia.”

On the 19 May, they will go to Izmir, a CHP stronghold, to hold a rally with the aim of getting the entire population of the city to participate. In addition, there will be gatherings every Wednesday somewhere in Istanbul, starting with districts like Sisli whose mayor has also been arrested.

“We intend to hold the biggest rally in the history of the republic. And once we finish all of these, we will come back to Istanbul,” Ozel said.

Since the arrest of Imamoglu, Ozel has been out on the streets holding opposition rallies, supporting the students, calling for a general consumer boycott on Wednesday and organising the boycott of brands close to the government.

Despite this, it is an uphill battle for the opposition, who have to contend with a strong state apparatus. When asked what his biggest concern was and what President Erdogan might do next, Ozel warned: “Anything.”

“To stay in power, Erdogan can resort to anything, be it violence or something else. If he sees that he is in the wrong, he can also turn around and try to achieve his goal through democratic means. That’s why the pressure from the rest of the world will be very valuable.

“I always say that I’m the main opposition party in Turkiye [Turkey], but I am the party of Turkiye abroad. But this doesn’t mean owning up to Erdogan’s mistakes. If democracy is suspended in a country, if the ballot box is eliminated, it is extremely important to announce this to all the democracies in the world and demand solidarity.”

However, even if Imamoglu is released from prison, there is still the issue of his university diploma being annulled, a move widely perceived as politically motivated to block him from running for president (candidates must hold a university degree).

On 18 March, Istanbul University nullified Imamoglu’s diploma, claiming irregularities with Council of Higher Education regulations.

Ozel told The i Paper that his party had already applied to the administrative court and if that did not work they would keep taking the case to the higher courts.

“We think we will get a positive legal ruling. If we cannot, Ekrem ‘bey’ will run the campaign but someone else will be a candidate in his place. And after the election, his diploma will be reinstated. Because everyone knows that the diploma is real,” he added.

Aside from the rallies, the CHP has also organised a signature campaign to demand the release of Imamoglu and hold early elections.

Ozel said they aimed for the signature campaign to be the largest no-confidence vote against Erdogan throughout the campaign.