Ekrem İmamoğlu, the mayor of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality and possible presidential candidate for the Republican People’s Party (CHP), was detained on two separate charges in a police raid on his home early Wednesday morning.

The police-state crackdown sparked mass protests across the country. After hundreds of municipal workers demonstrated in front of the Şişli Municipality, hundreds of students at Istanbul University organized a protest, defying Istanbul Governorship’s four-day ban on all protests.

Police reinforcements were deployed by the police chief to the security directorate in Istanbul where İmamoğlu is being detained, while crowds gathered behind the barricades to protest his detention. Thousands took to the streets in many cities, including Izmir and Ankara.

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Police detained İmamoğlu on charges of “leading [a] benefit-oriented criminal organization” along with 106 people, including mayors, municipality officials, journalists and artists. İmamoğlu and seven others, including Şişli and Beylikdüzü mayors and municipal officials, were also detained on charges of “aiding the terrorist organization,” i.e., the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

The Sosyalist Eşitlik Grubu (SEG), the Turkish section of the International Committee of the Fourth International, issued a statement on X condemning the Erdoğan regime’s police state repression, which abolishes basic democratic rights, including the right to vote and be elected, and calling for the immediate release of those detained.

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Placing Turkey’s escalating repression in an international context, the SEG further noted:

The developments in Turkey are part of a global process by ruling classes, from the U.S. to Europe, to build authoritarian regimes under conditions of genocide in Gaza, a developing world war, and rapidly intensifying class tensions. The deeply crisis-ridden and decaying global capitalist system is incompatible with democracy.

The Istanbul Governorship’s unconstitutional four-day “prohibition of demonstrations” reflects fear of opposition from working-class and youth masses. Democracy can only be defended and secured through the independent, mass mobilization of the working class for a socialist program.

İmamoğlu announced his detention on X, stating, “A coup is being carried out against the will of the nation.” He added: “A handful of minds attempting to usurp our nation’s will have deployed hundreds of police officers to the doors of 16 million Istanbul residents by exploiting our beloved police for evil. We face immense tyranny, but we will not yield. I entrust myself to my people. Let everyone know I will be tall in the saddle. I will continue to fight against his [Erdoğan’s] mentality that instrumentalizes the process through its apparatus.”

On Tuesday, İmamoğlu’s university degree, obtained 31 years ago, was unlawfully revoked by Istanbul University. Having a university degree is one of many anti-democratic requirements imposed on presidential candidates. Polls have shown İmamoğlu ahead of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in a potential presidential race.

The CHP became the leading party in last year’s elections, surpassing Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) for the first time in 22 years. Recently, the CHP launched an early election campaign in response to government-led repression and operations. An internal primary election, where İmamoğlu would be the sole candidate, was scheduled for this Sunday.

İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office issued a statement defending its trumped-up accusations that İmamoğlu is guilty of “aiding a terrorist organization”. It declared: “İmamoğlu, together with other suspects, determined the lists of municipal council members with their approvals in the local elections, they committed the crime of aiding the PKK/KCK terrorist organization by knowingly participating in the Urban Consensus…”

The police investigation is targeting a legal electoral alliance, known as the “Urban Consensus”, between the CHP and the Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) in local elections held on March 31 last year. The two parties collectively secured votes from over 20 million citizens nationwide.

As previously explained on the World Socialist Web Site, “The Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office is creating a ‘crime’ that does not exist and is trying to legitimise this operation on the basis that the electoral alliance between two legal parties was praised in the media by officials of the illegal Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).”

While the Erdoğan government seeks to suppress the opposition parties by linking them to the PKK, it is simultaneously negotiating with imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan. As part of talks mediated by the DEM Party and largely supported by other parliamentary parties, Öcalan recently called on the PKK to hold a congress, lay down arms, and dissolve itself.

İmamoğlu’s detention is part of a broader state crackdown targeting the DEM Party and CHP-elected mayors, journalists, and labor leaders in recent months. It exposes the hypocrisy of claims that negotiations—closely tied to the deepening war in the Middle East—will bring “peace and democracy.”

CHP leader Özgür Özel called İmamoğlu’s detention a “coup,” stating on X: “Using force to decide on behalf of the people, override their will, or obstruct it is a coup. A power is now at work to prevent the people from choosing the next president. We are facing a coup attempt against our next president.”

In a statement, the DEM Party declared, “As we have repeatedly stated, these actions constitute a coup. Turkey is experiencing an overt ‘joint judicial-executive coup’ process that increasingly targets all political and social opposition.”

Sections of the financial capital quickly showed their discontent with the detentions. Borsa Istanbul’s BIST 100 index opened with a sharp drop of nearly 7 percent, while the Turkish lira fell to historic lows against foreign currencies.

The European allies of the CHP, who are trying to continue the imperialist war against Russia in Ukraine and are carrying out a massive social onslaught at home, also reacted negatively. German Foreign Ministry spokesperson Sebastian Fischer described it as “a serious setback for democracy,” while the Social Democrats (SPD) declared their solidarity with İmamoğlu. The French Foreign Ministry said it was “deeply concerned” about the detentions.

The Erdoğan government’s growing turn to authoritarian rule reflects a deepening crisis of the ruling class, rooted not in Erdoğan’s mind but in the global capitalist system. Erdoğan already vowed to respond to the expanding Middle East war—of which the Gaza genocide is a part—and the growing radicalization of the working class by “strengthening the internal front.”

İmamoğlu’s arrest marks a new stage in the presidential dictatorship built over years.

Events in Turkey cannot be separated from the global shift toward authoritarianism amid escalating imperialist wars and growing social inequality. Four years after his attempted January 6 coup, fascist President Donald Trump, reinstated by the US financial oligarchy, is dismantling the constitution and defying court rulings.

Governments worldwide, including Erdoğan’s, are aware that their allies in Washington will no longer pressure them with “human rights” and “democracy” rhetoric, enabling them to advance dictatorial moves.

The way forward against this global assault, rooted in the capitalist system, lies in the independent mobilization of the working class—the only social force capable of consistently defending democratic rights—on an international scale, based on a socialist program.