Who is the leader of the arrested opposition in Türkiye?

EKREM Imamoglu, the Turkish president who is being held on charges of corruption and a terrorist assistant, is one of the most popular politicians in the country.

A pioneering figure in the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) and the mayor of Istanbul, who has long been seen as the most fragile president Tayyip’s competitor.

Erdogan and the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK) was astonished when he kept the control of Istanbul in the municipal elections last year, and they won a second consecutive mandate in the largest city in Türkiye.

Many political commentators in Türkiye indicated that it is “the worst defeat of Erdogan ever.”

But the arrest of IMamoglu, Which came a few days before it is scheduled to be chosen as a candidateThe People’s Republican Party to warn “an attempt to turn against the next president.”

It was born in 1970 in AkCAABAT, a coastal town in the province of Trabzon on the Black Sea coast, and IMamoglu moved to Istanbul in adolescence, studied business and then went to work in the construction industry.

Despite the conservative background in the middle of his family, IMamoglu says he “embraced social democratic values ​​during his presence at the university.”

Football enthusiasts, like Erdogan himself, Imamoglu was also a player for amateurs in his youth and is known for his support for his local club, TBZONSPOR. The love of sport is a useful characteristic of the politician in Türkiye with football.

After the work profession, at the age of 43, he turned into politics and elected a mayor in the Beylikduzu region of the middle class in Istanbul.

But he was still relatively unknown to a killer and won the municipal elections in Istanbul in 2019, which was a great shock to Erdogan and AK.

Imamoglu faced immediate challenges to his victory – the electoral authorities canceled the vote and forced him to get out of his post after AK violations in the voting process. Restarted.

After announcing the restart, IMamoglu addressed huge crowds of his supporters in a mass rally, took his jacket and tied him, rolled his sleeves and urged them to focus their energy to win again.

He said: “Everything will be fine,” which has become the slogan of his campaign in his campaign and was a slogan for him since then.

For IMamoglu, “Everything is Whatever Whatever” – he got 54 % of the votes in another huge blow to the president.

He has now overpowered the Justice and Development Party twice, in a city by the ruling party and its Islamic jails to run for 25 years.

Istanbul is the place where Erdogan grew up, selling snacks of sesame bread before going to politics in the 1970s. Here he rose through ranks to become a mayor and the prime minister, and at the end of the president.

This loss was affected personally and also hurt his party. Istanbul is home to the five population of Türkiye, which number about 85 million and responsible for a large part of its economy, including trade, tourism and financing.

Several experts predicted a similar increase in power for Imamoglu after winning the second jurisdiction in 2024. For many, he became a threat to Erdogan’s strength as Türkiye’s highest position.

Erdogan obtained a third term in the presidential elections in 2023 and under the constitution, he could not rule after 2028.

But his critics say it may change the constitution in order to search for another period. The following survey is scheduled for 2028, but it is likely to happen earlier.

During his political campaigns, Imamoglu was praised because of his soft and humorous approaches in politics, which contradicts many competitors in the polarized political scene in Türkiye.

By expanding the secular Chp base, he managed to attract some of the most traded voters in Turkey, who traditionally voted for AK, by including visits to mosques in its election campaigns and recently announced the restoration of a historical mosque in the famous Karakoy province in Istanbul.

His wife, Delk Emamoglu, has become a common figure with her active presence on social media, and participating in charitable work in favor of the disabled and appearances alongside her husband during his campaign.

The primary elections for the main opposition were to be chosen on March 23, which IMamoglu was expected to be chosen as a presidential vote for 2028.

But his arrest, and the abolition of his university degree at Istanbul University the day before due to the alleged violations, put his candidacy in doubt.

According to the Turkish constitution, the presidents must have completed higher education for pregnancy.