The President of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, Marc Cools, and Congress Rapporteurs on the situation of local and regional democracy in Türkiye, David Eray (Switzerland, EPP/CCE) and Bryony Rudkin (United Kingdom, SOC/G/PD), have made the following statement:
"We strongly condemn the arrest of the democratically elected Mayor of Istanbul, Ekrem Imamoglu, which bears all the hallmarks of the pressure on a political figure considered as one of the main candidates in forthcoming presidential elections - especially as it took place a few days before Mayor Imamoglu's CHP party should decide on its presidential candidate, and follows the decision of Istanbul University to revoke Mayor Imamoglu's degree, which is one of the conditions for presidential candidates.
"In three separate elections, the citizens of Istanbul have unequivocally placed their trust in Mayor Imamoglu, and these pressures can only be seen as running counter to the will of the people.
"We will continue to follow closely the situation and will raise the issue at the meeting of the Congress Bureau on Monday 24 March, when the Bureau should decide on the proposal to hold an urgent debate focusing on the dismissal of mayors in Türkiye during next week's Congress session in Strasbourg."
