Erdogan Arrests Dozen Over Social Media Posts As Hundreds Of Thousands Protest Imamoglu Arrest

Continuing its remarkable parallels with its “developed” yet fascist European and UK neighbors, where a twitter post is enough to get your house raided and land you in jail, overnight Turkish authorities said they arrested 37 people over social media posts criticizing the contentious detention of Istanbul’s popular mayor, Ekrem Imamoglu, which triggered a market meltdown as we described.

Police identified 261 “suspicious account managers,” Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said in a post on X on Thursday. 

The suspects made “provocative statements” on social media platforms, Yerlikaya said, accusing them of inciting hatred and provoking people to commit crimes. Cybersecurity forces continue conducting “virtual patrols” around the clock, he said. 

İstanbul Cumhuriyet Başsavcılığınca başlatılan soruşturmalar kapsamında, İstanbul Büyükşehir Belediye Başkanı ile birlikte toplam 106 şüpheli hakkında gözaltı kararı verilmesi sonrası, bazı sosyal medya hesapları üzerinden;

-“Halkı Kin ve Düşmanlığa Tahrik” ve
-“Suç İşlemeye…

— Ali Yerlikaya (@AliYerlikaya) March 20, 2025

Turkey also restricted access to major social media platforms and WhatsApp after Imamoglu’s detention, internet-monitoring group Netblocks said. Some users were still reporting problems accessing the platforms on Thursday. The Turkish government has restricted access to popular social media platforms in the past, including during terror incidents and major natural disasters, mostly citing security reasons.

The country’s internet regulator has the authority to slash bandwidth under several conditions and social media platforms are subject to a long list of rules. The government’s tighter grip over the platforms has worried human rights organizations, opposition politicians and other critics, who say it diminishes freedom of expression.

As reported yesterday, Imamoglu, who is viewed as the main rival to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in elections scheduled for 2028 was taken into custody early Wednesday, along with dozens of others, on corruption charges.  Prosecutors accused Imamoglu, from the secular Republican People’s Party (CHP), of corruption and aiding a terrorist group, calling him a “criminal organization leader suspect”. He denounced the move as politically-motivated just as he was preparing to formally announce his intention to run.

Late Wednesday, a local court also ordered the seizure of Imamoglu Insaat Ticaret ve Sanayi AS, the construction company where the mayor is a partner.

Imamoglu said online “the will of the people cannot be silenced” as thousands gathered to protest in Istanbul.

Last night, thousands of Istanbulites gathered at Saraçhane Square to demand justice and democracy in Türkiye.

United by a strong common desire for a better future, a nation’s will becomes unstoppable. pic.twitter.com/rbyy7jW1E9

— Ekrem İmamoğlu (International) (@imamoglu_int) March 20, 2025

“We must stand against this evil as a nation,” Imamoglu said on social media platform X, calling on members of the judiciary and Erdogan’s ruling party to fight injustice.

“These events have gone beyond our parties, political ideals. The process is now concerning our people, namely your families. It is time to raise our voices,” he said.

After Imamoglu’s arrest, hundreds of thousands took to the streets in protest. According to Reuters, thousands of Turks were expected to ramp up protests on Thursday over what they called the undemocratic detention of Istanbul’s mayor Ekrem Imamoglu despite a ban on gatherings, police barricades and dozens of detentions over social media posts.

Police on Thursday blocked off roads and stationed trucks with water cannons near the police station where the mayor is held and other areas of Turkey’s largest city.

“They hastily detained our mayor, whom we elected with our votes,” said Ali Izar, an opposition supporter on his way to work in central Istanbul. “I do not think this is a democratic practice and I condemn it.”

Though civil disobedience has been dramatically curbed in Turkey since the nationwide Gezi Park protests against Erdogan’s government in 2013, which prompted a violent state crackdown, thousands of protesters took to the streets and university campuses on Wednesday in Istanbul, Ankara and other cities.

Crowds had chanted anti-government slogans and, at the main municipality building in Istanbul, they hung banners of Imamoglu and the nation’s founding leader Mustafa Kemal Ataturk alongside Turkish flags.

His arrest sparked a historic plunge in the lira, although the selloff in Turkish assets that began following his arrest eased on Thursday as authorities announced measures to curb volatility and sold billions in dollars to support the lira.