Ekrem İmamoğlu, Mayor of Istanbul, and the leader of Turkish opposition was arrested for political reasons in March 2025. This terminated his ongoing mayorship of Istanbul and prompted Istanbul University to invalidate his diplomas, effectively disqualifying him from running for the President of Turkey.
The city of Paris, on the initiative of Mayor Anne Hidalgo, prepared a statement in support of Ekrem İmamoğlu and local elected representatives in Turkey who were also imprisoned.
The statement was supported by the Mayors of Eurocities member cities.
https://eurocities.eu/latest/mayors-voice-support-for-ekrem-imamoglu/
Mayors of UBC cities willing to sign the statement are kindly requested to contact EUROCITIES office,
e-mail: info@eurocities.eu