Turkey detains Istanbul mayor; Opposition calls it coup
Turkey detained Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, the main rival of President Tayyip Erdogan, on charges of corruption and aiding a terrorist group in what the main opposition party on Wednesday called “a coup against our next president”.
The move against the popular two-term mayor caps a months-long legal crackdown on opposition figures across the country which has been criticised as a politicised attempt to hurt their electoral prospects and silence dissent.
Turkey’s lira currency crashed as much as 12% to an all-time low of 42 to the dollar in response, underscoring worries over the eroding rule of law in the NATO country Erdogan has run for 22 years.
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