The chief prosecutor’s office in Istanbul has ordered Istanbul Municipality to stop using images, photos, videos and voice recordings of jailed mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, Baris Terkoglu of Onlar TV has reported.

The ban has been applied to all public transport lines (road, rail and sea) operated by the municipality.

Imamoglu under siege

In May, X blocked access to Imamoglu’s accounts (@ekrem_imamoglu and @imamoglu_int) in Turkey.

The mayor, the chief political opponent of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, also has no access to the traditional media, which is controlled by the ruling regime, with few exceptions. 

First wave in March

Imamoglu was jailed on March 19.

Five days later, the prosecutor’s office ordered the local police to collect all posters of six jailed mayors displayed across the city.

At that time, Esenyurt mayor Ahmet Ozer, Besiktas mayor Rizza Akpolat, Beykoz mayor Alaattin Koseler, Sisli mayor Resul Emrah Sahan and Beylikduzu mayor Mehmet Murat Calik were in jail in addition to Imamoglu.

All of the mayors are members of main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) and all the municipalities are districts in Istanbul.

Each time a politician or other individual is arrested in the operation with Imamoglu at its centre, the Istanbul chief prosecutor’s office circulates some reasons for the move via government media. However, the very wide consensus in the country is that the decisions on detentions and arrests are political and are taken directly by Erdogan. Officials in the regime know this better than anyone, goes the argument.

First CHP mayor jailed

In October, Ozer became the first jailed CHP mayor. At the same time, mayors from the current main Kurdish party DEM were jailed under the scope of another "crackdown" on the proscribed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

Ozer is a Kurd and was elected via a local coalition with DEM.

PKK aligns with ruling coalition though Kurdish politicians remain in jail

Recent months have seen the PKK in its own interests aligning with Turkey's ruling coalition. At the same time, Ozer, along with other jailed Kurdish mayors and politicians (including ex-presidential candidate Selahattin Demirtas), remain in prison.

Ten municipalities held by DEM are at this point governed by the government trustees sent in to replace arrested mayors. Since April, no additional Kurdish municipality has been seized.

13 municipalities seized

See the full list of municipalities seized during the new local government cycle launched with the March 2024 elections here. The total stands at 13, including three CHP municipalities in addition to Dem’s ten.

Additionally, various companies are also regularly seized.

In November, the CHP mayor of Ovacik town in Tunceli province was jailed. Akpolat was jailed in January, followed by Sahan, Koseler and Calik who were jailed together with Imamoglu.

In the latest and fifth detention wave in the Imamoglu operation that was executed on May 31, Buyukcekmece (a district in Istanbul) mayor Hasan Akgun, Gaziosmanpasa (Istanbul) mayor Hakan Bahcetepe, Avcilar (Istanbul) mayor Utku Caner Caykara, Ceyhan (a district in Adana province) mayor Kadir Aydar and Seyhan (Adana) mayor Oya Tekin were jailed.

12 CHP mayors in jail

Currently, 12 CHP mayors in all are in jail. Only three CHP municipalities, namely Esenyurt, Ovacik and Sisli, have so far been seized by the government.

City district parliaments in Istanbul and Besiktas elected new mayors who are CHP members. Beykoz, Beylikduzu, Buyukcekmece, Gaziosmanpasa, Avcilar, Ceyhan and Seyhan remain in limbo.