TURKEY: Demanding İmamoğlu’s Release & more – 1st April 2025

Merhaba from Keswick Village! This is the Rorshok Turkey Update from the 1st of April twenty twenty-five. A quick summary of what's going down in Turkey.

On Sunday the 30th, Özgür Özel, the head of the Republican People’s Party or CHP, launched a signature campaign demanding the release of Ekrem İmamoğlu, the mayor of Istanbul Municipality and the CHP's presidential candidate, after authorities jailed him. He said the government targeted İmamoğlu for defeating President Erdoğan in the past and posing a future threat. He outlined plans to collect signatures nationwide, calling it the largest political petition in history.

Onto another jailed CHP member: Mahir Polat, the deputy secretary-general of Istanbul Municipality, was arrested as part of the investigation into the municipality, just like İmamoğlu, on charges of corruption. On Sunday the 30th, he was hospitalized due to serious heart issues. Erkam Erdem, his lawyer, reported that the prison didn’t notify his legal team about his hospitalization.

Doctors performed an angioplasty after Polat’s blood pressure wouldn’t stabilize. Erdem stated that the prison ignored his request for a hospital transfer but later had to move him as an emergency when his condition worsened.

A CHP lawmaker confirmed Polat’s condition had stabilized but public outrage grew when authorities sent him back to prison after his treatment, despite his health complications, including six stents.

While Polat is still behind bars, someone else walks free. On Sunday the 30th, President Erdoğan pardoned two Hezbollah convicts serving life sentences, citing chronic illness. Hezbollah carried out brutal killings in the nineteen nineties. The two men had been convicted for their roles in these crimes.

Their release struck a nerve, particularly after Polat’s hospitalization. It sparked mass outrage, with many highlighting the stark contrast—political prisoners fighting for their lives in prison, while religious extremists convicted of murder are pardoned by the president.

On Saturday the 29th, the CHP held its largest protest yet in İstanbul, following the arrest of İmamoğlu, which sparked widespread demonstrations across the country. Reportedly, there were over two million people. During the protests, the CHP shared a letter from İmamoğlu, presenting part of it through an AI-generated video of the mayor. In the letter, he emphasized that the nation is greater than any government or authority.

Özel called out President Erdoğan, challenging him to live broadcast İmamoğlu’s trial. Özel criticized media outlets like NTV and HaberTürk for cutting coverage of opposition rallies. He urged the public to boycott these channels by refusing to watch or support them.

On a related note, Özel has been sharing and updating a boycott list of brands and media outlets that ignored the public’s demands. The list focused on three companies with government ties—Doğan, Turkuaz, and Demirören, and their subsidiaries, including the cafe Espressolab, and the bookstore D&R.

In response, some ministers and lawmakers from the ruling Justice and Development Party or AKP rushed to publicly support these brands. Some pointed to a double standard, saying that Vedat Milör, a gourmet, faced an investigation over covert advertising after making a video about Istanbul Municipality’s restaurants, while AKP officials openly supported these companies without consequences.

The ruling bloc criticized the boycott, arguing that the opposition targeted local brands but did nothing to protest Israeli products over the Gaza tragedy, despite CHP’s strong support for Palestine.

Moreover, the public called for a nationwide boycott as a form of passive resistance, urging people to stop spending altogether for a day on the 2nd of April to remind the government that it relies on people’s support and therefore must listen to their demands.

Protestors advocate for avoiding unnecessary purchases, like clothes and electronics, until the government lifts excessive taxes and fees, such as the Value Added Tax and the Special Consumption Tax.

After İmamoğlu's arrest, polling companies conducted surveys, and the results from the first general election poll showed significant shifts. In a study by Ser Research, conducted between Monday the 24th and Thursday the 27th of March across twenty-six provinces with 2,000 participants, the CHP emerged as the leading party with almost 34%. The AKP followed with a little over 30%.

The CHP saw a 3% increase in support compared to the previous month, when it stood at 30%. On the other hand, the Nationalist Movement Party, part of the ruling alliance, experienced a support decline, dropping from 8% in February to 7.5% in March.

In some tragic news, on Monday the 31th of March, Volkan Konak, a famous Turkish folk music artist, passed away at fifty-eight after suffering a heart attack during a concert in Northern Cyprus. He suddenly collapsed on stage. Despite efforts to revive him, including CPR, the doctors pronounced him dead.

Konak was known for his distinctive style, poetic song performances, and contributions to folk music. During his final days, he was very vocal about the government’s ongoing crackdown on democracy. He had criticized the political establishment and expressed loyalty to his friend İmamoğlu.

A couple weeks earlier, we reported that İsmail Saymaz, a prominent dissident journalist, was under investigation as part of the twenty thirteen Gezi Park case, where Saymaz, due to his journalistic work, had frequent contacts with key figures involved in the protests. Well, on Monday the 21st of March, he was placed under house arrest. The investigation, tied to events from a decade ago, raised questions, especially since his detention coincided with İmamoğlu’s.

There’s speculation that the government was seeking a reason to silence dissent. Since his house arrest, Saymaz has remained unusually quiet, prompting further discussions about the government's strategy to stifle journalism.

Also on Monday, the Birgün News Outlet reported that the government had paid contractors around 133 billion liras, which is almost four billion US Dollars, for eighteen city hospitals between twenty seventeen and twenty twenty-four. These hospitals are part of the Public-Private Partnership model, where private companies finance, build, and operate the hospitals, while the government guarantees them a certain income. If the hospitals fall short of that amount, the government makes up for the remaining amount.

Despite the government’s remarks that the model avoids burdening the state budget, the Health Ministry’s data shows it’s draining public funds. For twenty twenty-five, the ministry allocated 26% of the one trillion lira budget, which is around twenty-nine billion dollars, to city hospitals, with twenty billion liras, about 580 million dollars, spent in the first two months alone.

Back to the İstanbul Municipality: while its mayor is facing corruption charges, last week the Municipality revealed that İmamoğlu had requested an investigation into public funds lost in two projects before he took office in twenty nineteen. The municipality’s inspection found that the projects Çekmeköy Rahmi Demir Recreation Area and Pendik City Forest have caused a financial loss of approximately 416 thousand dollars.

Despite the inspection identifying the loss, the Istanbul Governor's Office denied permission for further investigation into the officials responsible. As a result, İmamoğlu’s administration filed a lawsuit to recover the public funds and the process is ongoing.

On Tuesday the 1st, Turkey's new regulation for online shopping went into effect. The president of the Electronic Commerce Operators Association explained that the new rules would improve product transparency and safety for consumers. Now, products sold online must display clear technical and legal details, including safety warnings in Turkish. Sellers must provide full information about manufacturers and importers, while marketplaces are responsible for monitoring product safety and taking action on risky items. The regulation also requires foreign sellers to have a local representative in Turkey, making it easier to track product safety. This update aims to protect consumers and improve trust in e-commerce.

And to wrap up this edition, between twenty twenty-three and twenty twenty-five, the Parliament’s Petition Committee received over 16,000 applications from citizens, including a wide range of unusual requests. One person from the eastern province of Bitlis asked for help finding a spouse, while another requested assistance to become a mortician.

Other notable petitions included proposals for cities dedicated to cats and dogs, and imposing traffic fines on slow drivers in the left lane. There were also calls for changes like distributing national income equally among citizens, banning spouses from working in the same public office, and replacing animal rights associations with human rights organizations. Some petitioners requested stronger regulations on pseudosciences like astrology, tarot reading, and hypnosis.

Aaand that’s it for this week! Thank you for joining us!

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