Turkey Jails İmamoğlu in Authoritarian Turn

The arrest of Istanbul’s mayor signals a sharp departure from Turkey’s political order. His detention exposed a system that now relies on imprisoning opponents rather than competing with them.

On March 19, 2025, Istanbul’s mayor and presidential candidate Ekrem İmamoğlu was taken into custody. By jailing an elected representative, the state signaled how far Turkey’s democratic institutions had eroded. For many inside the country, it was the day authoritarianism shed its last restraints. He remains in prison today as he awaits trial for corruption charges.

Observers abroad have tracked Turkey’s decline for years, with human rights organizations like Freedom House labeling it “Not Free” since 2018. Yet the labels only tell part of the story. The feeling on the ground is more acute: March 19 was the moment the system revealed its willingness to imprison even the most popular elected figure, and the one person widely seen as capable of challenging President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Turkey is frequently cited as a textbook case of democratic backsliding. But the events after İmamoğlu’s arrest tell a more troubling story. They show a system that no longer relies only on stacked elections, media domination, or judicial pressure—but on outright elimination of rivals through imprisonment. And his arrest was not an isolated event. It came amid a broader wave of detentions and trustee appointments. According to BBC data, at least fifteen mayors have been jailed since the March 2024 local elections, including three metropolitan city leaders. Several more municipalities were placed under government-appointed trustees. In practice, this has meant that millions of citizens who voted for an opposition mayor now find their representatives behind bars, replaced by central government appointees.

"I've been fighting against the abuse of the judiciary and against its use as a political tool. This is indeed an insult against our nation," said İmamoğlu.

What makes the picture even more concerning is that the crackdown has not stopped with elected officials. In a dramatic turn, İmamoğlu’s two lawyers were also arrested. Targeting legal defense strikes at the very notion of due process, sending a chilling signal that not only politicians but also those who defend them are at risk. It reflects a logic where the legal system is no longer an arena of defense but an extension of political punishment.

This has turned Istanbul’s Silivri Prison into a political theater masquerading as a lawful detention facility. The prison, notorious for housing the world's largest number of journalists and dissidents, now holds mayors representing tens of millions of citizens. When Erdoğan’s party took power in 2002, Turkey’s prisons held roughly 60,000 people. Today, that number is likely more than 350,000. European mayors have attempted to travel to Silivri to visit their Turkish counterparts to signal international solidarity, but have been barred from doing so. That the visits are needed at all shows that democratic representation in Turkey today is not embodied in city halls, but behind prison walls.

More than 80 European mayors, including those from Paris, Berlin, and Rome, signed a joint declaration denouncing İmamoğlu's imprisonment and criticizing the pressure on local elected representatives in Turkey.

This is essentially a response to the opposition’s municipal victories in the March 2024 local elections, where they captured 8 of the 10 largest cities. Today, the opposition governs municipalities that account for 73 percent of Turkey’s population and 64 percent of its GDP. The shift came just ten months after Erdoğan narrowly won the national elections. It is an unusual response from a leader who has long pointed to the ballot box as the ultimate source of legitimacy. But now, as a new generation of opposition leaders rises and the prospect of an even bigger defeat draws near, Erdoğan has doubled down—abandoning his democratic rhetoric and embracing full autocrat mode.

And yet, repression has not silenced the Turkish people. On the contrary, İmamoğlu’s arrest unleashed one of the largest protest waves in years. Students, professionals, workers, and families poured into the streets. For years, fear had prevented many citizens from expressing themselves openly. After March 19, that barrier broke. What was once whispered in private began to be chanted in public squares. Local party branches report surging membership since the arrests. Citizens who had previously been content to grumble in private now seek involvement in organized politics. Civil society groups, which have long been fragmented, are coordinating again.

The balance of courage has shifted. For a generation that has known nothing but Erdoğan’s rule, watching their peers take a stand—and their elders follow—is groundbreaking. A system built to crush the opposition now risks strengthening it, and the government’s reliance on force has created a newly invigorated sense of resistance and shared purpose. Turkey’s presidential system was always tailored to one man. Without Erdoğan’s charisma and accumulated legitimacy, it is hard to see how anyone else could sustain it. That is why March 19 feels like more than the jailing of one mayor. It exposed the fragility of a system that depends on eliminating rivals, silencing defenders, and rewriting the rules when necessary.

For Washington and the West, the stakes are far from theoretical. Turkey is a NATO ally that sits at the intersection of Europe and the Middle East, bordering Russia, Iran, and Syria. Its trajectory shapes everything from regional security and energy routes to how the West manages migration and confronts Moscow. When a country this central slides deeper into autocracy, the consequences will not be contained within Turkey’s borders. The repercussions will reverberate through the very alliances and policies the United States depends on.

On one side stands a state apparatus willing to imprison elected leaders and even their lawyers. On the other, a society that—despite exhaustion, fear, and years of repression—still refuses to submit. The consequences of that day are still unfolding, as Silivri Prison’s swollen population continues to grow with many held on fabricated charges. Protests flare, civil society reorganizes, and opposition parties, though under immense pressure, continue to widen their reach. Turkey has entered uncharted territory. Whatever comes next, March 19 will be remembered as the moment the system crossed a line—and when millions chose not to look away.

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