Sawt Falasteen - Turkey detains president's main election rival, sparking protests

Imamoglu of the main opposition CHP is President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's main political rival and his detention came just days before the party was expected to name him as its candidate for the 2028 presidential election.

Widely seen as the strongest challenger to Erdogan -- whose route to the presidency also included four years as Istanbul mayor -- Imamoglu has been targeted by a growing number of what critics say are spurious legal investigations.

Hundreds of police joined the pre-dawn raid on his home, Imamoglu said on X before being taken away, with the authorities then briefly blocking access to social networks.

There was a heavy police presence on the streets, with hundreds fanning out around City Hall and closing off the central Taksim Square. The governor banned all protests for four days.

"What has happened is an attempted coup," said the leader of the CHP, Ozgur Ozel, in a speech at City Hall.

"Ekrem Imamoglu's freedom to be a candidate is not being taken away, it is this nation's freedom to elect him that is being taken away."

The mayor's wife, Dilek Kaya Imamoglu, called it "a targeted political operation aimed at eliminating Turkey's future president. This is a direct blow to the nation, and we will fight," she vowed.

- Street protests -

Anger also erupted on the streets, with thousands of people rallying in the cold in front of the city hall on Wednesday evening, yelling: "Erdogan, dictator!" and "Imamoglu, you are not alone!"

Hundreds also massed earlier outside the police station where the mayor was being held.

"Whenever this guy and his dirty team see someone strong, they panic and do something illegal," said a shopkeeper who identified himself as Kurzey, referring to Erdogan and the AKP who have been in power since 2003.

"In the past, it was soldiers who carried out coups. Today it's the politicians," sighed 63-year-old Hasan Yildiz.

Police fired teargas to disperse 400 students protesting outside Istanbul University over its decision to revoke Imamoglu's degree, an AFP correspondent said.

The Turkish lira fell 14.5 percent against the dollar and the benchmark stock index BIST 100 closed 8.72 percent lower.

"Today's dip in the markets shows investors are concerned the arrest was politically motivated," said Hamish Kinnear, a senior analyst with Verisk Maplecroft.

- 'Escalation' of crackdown -

Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc said Imamoglu was being investigated for the "alleged crime of aiding and abetting a terrorist organisation" -- namely the banned Kurdish militant group PKK.

A second investigation, involving 100 suspects, was focused on allegations of "bribery, extortion, corruption, aggravated fraud, and illegally obtaining personal data for profit as part of a criminal organisation".

More than 80 people were rounded up early on Wednesday with some 20 others still sought -- most from the CHP.

The authorities have regularly targeted journalists, lawyers and elected politicians, notably since a failed coup in 2016.

But the crackdown has intensified in recent months, with the authorities removing more than a dozen opposition mayors and taking action against any perceived opponents to stifle dissent.

"What happened this morning was nothing short of a coup against the main opposition party, with far-reaching consequences for Turkey's political trajectory," political scientist Berk Esen at Istanbul's Sabanci University told AFP.

In a statement, Amnesty International called the arrest "a massive escalation in the authorities' ongoing crackdown on peaceful dissent", pointing to "the weaponisation of vague anti-terrorism allegations to detain and prosecute opponents".

Between October and March, the authorities jailed three CHP mayors in the Istanbul area. They also removed 10 mayors from the pro-Kurdish DEM party, with most replaced by government-appointed trustees.

Imamoglu was one of three more CHP mayors detained on Wednesday.

EU chief Ursula von der Leyen said it was "deeply concerning" and Berlin denounced it as a "serious setback for democracy".

- 'Nipping candidacy in the bud' -

The raid occurred just hours after Istanbul University revoked Imamoglu's degree, amid claims it was falsely obtained -- a significant move as presidential candidates are required by law to have a higher education qualification.

It also came just days ahead of a key CHP meeting at which the party was to have named him their candidate for the 2028 presidential race.

"I think it was about Erdogan nipping Imamoglu's candidacy in the bud," Soner Cagaptay, senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, told AFP.

The 53-year-old, who was resoundingly re-elected as mayor of Turkey's largest city and economic powerhouse last year, has been named in several legal probes, with three new cases opened this year alone.

T.Khatib--SF-PST