Foreign Affairs

High tension in the election campaign a few days before the vote

Turkey. Stone-throwing at the bus of the mayor of Istanbul during a rally - Video

Ekrem Imamoglu, one of the leaders of the opposition to Erdogan, is running for vice president in next Sunday's elections.

08/05/2023

AP

A group of protesters threw stones at the bus of Ekrem Imamoglu, mayor of Istanbul elected in 2019 against the candidate supported by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, during his rally in Erzurum in eastern Turkey.

Imamoglu pointed the finger at police inertia. "There are images showing that the police did not lift a finger," he said, "they were orders. It can't be anything else, there were orders not to interfere."

According to the governor of Erzurum, Okay Memis, seven people were injured in the stone. After the attack, the police, who manned the rally in riot gear and with water cannons, arrested a dozen people.

The mayor of Istanbul is one of the leaders of the opposition and is a candidate for vice president of the republic for the coalition against Erdogan in the elections scheduled for next Sunday.

At the end of last year, Imamoglu was sentenced to about three years in prison and the loss of political rights for "insulting" members of the Turkish Election Committee, which had annulled his victory by deciding to return to the polls (where Imamoglu then won again). The sentence was suspended after the mayor appealed.