ANKARA: Istanbul mayor and Turkish opposition figure Ekrem Imamoglu is facing a prison sentence following a months-long investigation campaign by authorities who fear his surging popularity poses a threat to their rule. As a young and ambitious political player trying to heal divides, Imamoglu has spread a message of unity in the Turkish capital based on his campaign slogan,
Türkische Wahlbehörde klagt gegen Istanbuler Bürgermeister orf.at - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from orf.at Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
“Where is the $128 billion?” asked posters on billboards around Istanbul intended by Turkey’s main opposition to embarrass and annoy President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his ruling Justice and Development Party (AK).
The gambit seems to have worked. Police took the posters down, using cranes in some instances, according to videos shared online by the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which said it would keep putting them back up.
The question has also trended on social media, while the AK on Tuesday blocked a CHP call to debate the missing funds in parliament.
The sum refers to the dollars sold by state banks to support the Turkish lira in foreign exchange markets. The unorthodox policy began around the 2019 municipal elections and was ramped up in 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic laid bare the lira’s vulnerability and Turkey’s reliance on external funding.
The chutzpah of opposition politician Canan Kaftancioglu
Left-wing CHP leader Canan Kaftancioglu inflicted a humiliating defeat on Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Istanbul in 2019. Now the Turkish president wants revenge in court. Yet Kaftancioglu seems unlikely to go down without a fight, having recently sued both Erdogan and his interior minister for defamation, after they branded her a terrorist . By Daniel Bellut
Canan Kaftancioglu is a rising political star in Turkey. The popularity ratings of this 48-year-old doctor-turned-politician from the Black Sea region are among the highest in the country.
She had always stood out in the social democratic Republican People s Party (CHP) with her left-wing views, and at the beginning of 2018 she was elected Istanbul s provincial president. But Kaftancioglu s real breakthrough came a good year later after she masterminded one of the most successful election campaigns in Turkish history.