Turkish diaspora divided over arrest

AS HUNDREDS of people gathered for a rally in support of Turkish opposition leader Ekrem Imamoglu in central Berlin, Turkish builder Ali was queueing up to buy pastries across town.

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“In my opinion, there’s nothing wrong with it,” said Ali of the arrest of opposition leader Ekrem Imamoglu, which has sparked Turkiye’s worst crisis unseen in over a decade.

“If something similar happened here, the police would react the same way. Of course the person has to go to court,” said the 55-year-old, who did not want to give his last name.

Imamoglu, the mayor of Istanbul and a key rival of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was arrested on March 19 on corruption charges his supporters say are false.

Widely seen as the only politician capable of challenging Erdogan at the ballot box, Imamoglu was elected as the opposition CHP party’s candidate for the 2028 election on the day he was jailed.

Hundreds of thousands of people have since taken to the streets in Turkiye to protest against his imprisonment.