Türkiye stops 37 on publications of ‘provocative’ social networks after the mayor’s arrest

Thirty -seven people have been arrested by the Turkish authorities for sharing “provocative” content on social networks, said Interior Minister.

The authorities are advancing with an offensive against the dissident voices that intensified with the arrest on Wednesday of the mayor of Istanbul, a possible challenger of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu was arrested after a raid for dawn in his residence as part of the investigations on alleged corruption and terrorist links. Several other prominent figures were also arrested, including two mayors of the district.

Several people were arrested after a student protest in the capital, Ankara, who continued until night.

It also caused a shock wave in the financial market, which caused temporary detainees in commerce to avoid the sale of panic.

Critics see repression as an effort by Mr. Erdogan to extend his rule more than two decades after significant losses of the ruling party in local elections last year.

Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said the authorities identified 261 social media accounts that shared provocative positions that prompted public hatred or crime, including 62 who are directed by people based abroad. At least 37 of the alleged owners were arrested in an operation by the police and cyber crime teams, he wrote on X, previously Twitter. The efforts to stop other suspects continued, he said.

Imamoglu arrest occurred a few days before it was expected to be nominated as presidential candidate of the Republican Popular Party of the opposition in a primary school scheduled for Sunday. The party leader has said that primary will continue as planned.

Prosecutors accused Mr. Imamoglu of exploiting their position to obtain financial gains, including inadequate allocation of government contracts.

In a separate investigation, prosecutors also accuse Mr. Imamoglu of helping the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, by forming an alliance with a Kurdish umbrella organization for the municipal elections of Istanbul.

The PKK, behind an insurgency of decades in Türkiye, a terrorist organization of Ankara, Washington and other allies is designated.

Before his arrest, Mr. Imamoglu already faced multiple criminal cases that could result in prison sentences and a political prohibition. A 2022 sentence is also appealing for insulting the members of the Supreme Electoral Council of Türkiye, a case that could result in a political prohibition.

This week, a university annulled its diploma, citing alleged irregularities in its 1990 transfer of a private university in northern Cyprus to its business faculty, a decision that Imamoglu said it would challenge. The decision effectively prevents it from running for president, since the position requires candidates to be university graduates.

Imamoglu was elected mayor of the largest city in Turkey in March 2019, a historic coup for Erdogan and the President’s Justice and Development Party, which had controlled Istanbul for a quarter of a century. Erdogan’s party pressed to cancel the results of the municipal elections in the city of 16 million, claiming irregularities.

The challenge resulted in a repetition of the elections a few months later, which also won Imamoglu. The mayor retained his position after the local elections last year, during which his party obtained significant profits against Erdogan’s governing party.