Turkish democracy has taken a heavy beating since the jailing of Istanbul’s popular opposition mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, his wife told reporters, adding that it has been painful for his family, but the ordeal has made them stronger.
“It’s an extremely difficult time for our children and for me ... but we hold onto one another,” Dilek Kaya Imamoglu, 51, told reporters in her first interview with foreign media.
Her husband — the only politician seen as capable of beating Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan — faces 2,430 years in prison from a blizzard of charges many see as a bid to stop him standing against Erdogan in 2028.
Photo: AFP
However, Dilek Kaya Imamoglu said they have taken strength from her husband’s message “to never lose hope.”
Ekrem Imamoglu’s arrest in March, just before he was named as the main opposition CHP’s candidate for the presidential race, sparked Turkey’s worst bout of street unrest since 2013. He is accused of heading a sprawling criminal network and exerting influence “like an octopus” in a 4,000-page indictment that covers everything from graft and bribery to money laundering.
The first court hearing is set for March 9.
However, his wife warned that “the public conscience cannot be silenced.”
“These hardships do not lead me to despair, but to solidarity. I trust the will and conscience of the people,” she said.
She described how hundreds of police descended on the Istanbul mayor’s home on the morning of his arrest.
“I was shocked by what I saw... My heart felt like it was beating outside my chest. I will never forget the worry in our children’s eyes,” she said.
Her husband told them: “We will hold our heads high and never lose hope,” she said. “And instead of bowing to it, we chose to fight.”
Dilek Kaya Imamoglu said that the family is allowed weekly visits to see him in Silivri prison, west of Istanbul, where several other leading opponents of Erdogan are also being held.
Despite the serious charges he is facing, his spirit is high, she said.
She described those moments as “very precious, but also very heavy.”
Her husband “resists by working, taking notes, generating new ideas for our country’s future and reading books,” she said. “’My freedom is in my mind,’ he says. Messages of solidarity, letters, and visitors give him incredible strength. It helps him feel that he is not alone inside, but together with millions.”
Human rights advocates have accused Europe of turning a deaf ear to what they call the erosion of the rule of law and judicial independence in Turkey. They have criticized a Turkish government crackdown on opponents and the jailing of Erdogan’s political rivals.
“Frankly, this silence has disappointed us,” Dilek Kaya Imamoglu said.
“While the will of millions in Turkey is being ignored, countries that claim to defend democracy have often chosen to remain silent,” she added.
“Our greatest support is not international reaction, but the solidarity of millions in Turkey who believe in justice, freedom and democracy,” she added.
She also expressed her solidarity with the families of other leading figures who have fallen foul of Erdogan, including popular Kurdish politician Selahattin Demirtas and philanthropist Osman Kavala, both of whom have been behind bars for nearly a decade.
“Today I share the patience and resilience of the spouses of Selahattin Demirtas and Osman Kavala,” Dilek Kaya Imamoglu told reporters in the written interview. “The endurance of the families of those unjustly and unlawfully deprived of their freedom guides me, because we are not alone.”
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