The Mayor of Istanbul, Ekrem İmamoglu, and several other senior members of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) were detained early this morning. The arrests come just days before the opposition party was expected to officially nominate İmamoglu as its presidential candidate. The CHP will hold primaries on Sunday, March 23, to elect its presidential nominee, and İmamoglu was widely considered the most likely choice. He had unofficially announced his candidacy earlier this month.

Protesters chanted, “Mayor Resul is not alone!”, “Mayor Ekrem is not alone!” and “Detentions, arrests, and repression will not scare us!”, BirGün reports.

Emma Sinclair-Webb, the Turkiye Director of Human Rights Watch, condemned the detention of İmamoglu and other senior CHP officials, calling it a blatant abuse of the judicial system, Reuters reported.

Words of support for Imamoglu came from the French Foreign Ministry, whose spokesman said that the arrest could have grave consequences for Turkish democracy. The Foreign Ministry in Berlin called it “a step backwards” for Turkiye. The Council of Europe condemned the arrests as a move against the will of the people. The mayors of Athens and Thessaloniki also voiced support for the Istanbul mayor in social media posts.

In the wake of the Wednesday arrests, the Turkish lira crashed by 12% to an all-time low of 42 to the dollar.

Access to several social media platforms, including X, TikTok, and Instagram, was partially restricted in Turkey this morning.

Imamoglu’s arrest came a day after Istanbul University announced annulling İmamoglu’s diploma in line with a move by the Istanbul Chief Prosecutor’s Office questioning the legitimacy of his higher education credentials.