Jailed İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, the main opposition’s declared presidential candidate, said a national vote in which he cannot run “would be an election where the president’s legitimacy ends,” arguing it would turn into a referendum on his imprisonment and the wider crackdown on the opposition.
İmamoğlu, a leading figure in the Republican People’s Party (CHP), made the comments in a written interview published by the T24 news website, where he answered questions from the Marmara prison complex in İstanbul. Prosecutors ordered his detention on March 19, and he was jailed four days later in a corruption investigation the CHP has called politically motivated.
At the center of İmamoğlu’s argument is his insistence that he remain the opposition’s candidate despite multiple cases that could bar him from running. Turkey’s constitution says a presidential candidate must have completed a degree in higher education. In March 2025 İstanbul University invalidated his diploma over alleged irregularities tied to a decades-old transfer, a move he appealed and described as an attempt to block his candidacy.
İmamoğlu wrote that he became the CHP’s candidate through “15.5 million” votes in a party primary, framing his candidacy as a public mandate rather than a party decision. He said the diploma case had not been finalized and that “my candidacy definitely continues,” while also signaling the CHP could field other contenders if the courts ultimately block him.
He used sharper language for President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s camp, saying officials who dream of rewriting the constitution with a supermajority in the parliament “will wait a long time” and taunting Erdoğan over term limits. Under Turkey’s current system, Erdoğan has been in power for more than two decades, first as prime minister and then as president, while supporters and critics have long argued over the legal path for another run.
On the criminal case that put him behind bars, İmamoğlu said the indictment rests on coerced statements and lacks proof of illegal tenders or money flows. He called for hearings to be broadcast live, writing that “someone who trusts their indictment broadcasts the hearings,” and arguing that public scrutiny would expose the case as political.
Asked what he would promise voters if he can run, İmamoğlu listed “justice, the economy and education” as top priorities. He said he would move immediately to restore judicial independence, including changing the structure of the Council of Judges and Prosecutors, the body that oversees appointments and judicial discipline. He also described a “citizenship income” plan aimed at helping families that can’t make ends meet, along with plans to set up new state bodies focused on science, technology and industrial renewal. He promised free, high-quality public education nationwide and said state-run schools should again become “the best schools in the country.”
The interview ranged well beyond domestic politics to Turkey’s long-running conflict between the state and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). İmamoğlu argued the issue cannot be treated only as a security matter, calling it a democracy problem that requires legal guarantees and equal citizenship. He backed renewed peace efforts branded by the government as “Terrorism-Free Turkey.”
The jailed mayor also repeated past calls for the release of Selahattin Demirtaş, a Kurdish politician who has been jailed since 2016 despite rulings by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) calling for his release.
On foreign policy İmamoğlu argued for a “values-oriented” approach rooted in the rule of law and democratic standards but paired with strong defense and intelligence capacity. He said the bigger risk when it comes to relations with Israel is not a direct attack on Turkey but escalation in Syria through airspace tensions, proxy forces and intelligence activity.
İmamoğlu defended keeping Turkey’s European Union membership goal as a strategic anchor even though accession talks have been effectively frozen for years. He argued that Europe still sets standards that shape Turkish trade, investment and regulation, saying that “it is easy to say ‘the EU is finished,’ but the need to align with the standards the EU produces does not end.”
İmamoğlu also criticized what he described as silence from Western capitals on Erdoğan’s crackdown on his opponents, saying it lowers the cost of repression for authoritarians. He argued that transactional cooperation on migration, energy and security has allowed Ankara to brush aside criticism at home by portraying it as an attack on Turkey.
In late 2025 prosecutors filed an indictment against İmamoğlu seeking a combined prison sentence of 2,352 years on multiple charges in a sweeping case tied to alleged corruption at the İstanbul Municipality. His lawyers deny any wrongdoing and say the case is designed to eliminate Erdoğan’s strongest rival ahead of the next presidential election, due in 2028 unless lawmakers call an earlier vote.