Who is Erdogan’s popular rival Ekrem Imamoglu?

One of Turkey’s most popular politicians, Ekrem Imamoglu comes across as relaxed, eloquent, contemporary: He has always known how to appeal to different social groups, wants to include everyone in politics and prefers a more inclusive style of politics, that does not discriminate or offend.

His attitude can also be seen as a reaction to the style of the current Turkish government. In Turkish politics, it is quite common to use a patronizing and insulting “us versus them” discourse against political opponents.

The 54-year-old’s attitude has certainly contributed to his popularity in Turkey’s increasingly polarized society in recent years. The mayor of Istanbul since 2019, Imamoglu is seen as one of current Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s most serious rivals and his secular Republican People’s Party, or CHP, was set to make him their candidate for upcoming presidential elections.  

Despite his genial ways, on March 19, Imamoglu was arrested on corruption charges and suspicion of terrorism. The terrorism charges have since been dismissed, but a court has ruled he must remain in pre-trial detention.

The arrest has triggered the largest opposition protests in Turkey since the so-called Gezi protests in 2013. Despite a massive police presence, thousands of people have taken to the streets across the country demonstrating against what they see as a ploy to stop Imamoglu’s bid for the presidency.

Soccer, construction, meatballs

The vast majority of Turks had likely not heard of Imamoglu until 2019.

Born in 1970, Imamoglu grew up in the province of Trabzon. There he attended Quran classes, which gave him a religious education. Imamoglu then studied in Cyprus and Istanbul, graduating with a degree in business administration.

Before entering politics, he ran an Istanbul restaurant specializing in kofte (Turkish meatballs) and also managed his family’s construction company, Imamoglu Insaat. From 2002 to 2003, he was a board member with football club Trabzonspor, his home team and one of Turkey’s most successful soccer clubs.

By 2009, he had entered local politics and in 2014, became mayor of Istanbul’s middle-class Beylikduzu district. When the CHP announced him as a candidate in the race for the mayoralty of all of Istanbul, it came as a surprise to many.

Many opposition supporters believed he had no chance against the candidate supported by Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party, or AKP.

Yet Imamoglu won those local elections with a margin of 13,000 more votes than the AKP candidate, and took the metropolis, which had been ruled by conservative Islamists for 25 years. Following an appeal by the AKP, Turkey’s electoral authority, the Supreme Election Council, annulled the results. Then three months later, he won again — and this time, with a significantly bigger margin of over 800,000 votes.

Imamoglu also won the mayoral election again in 2024. President Erdogan and the AKP had set themselves the goal of winning this and described it as “the beginning of a new era.” The Istanbul mayoralty is also significant to Erdogan, who was mayor of the capital between 1994 and 1998. However, Imamoglu ended up with a lead of almost 10 percentage points over his AKP challenger, Murat Kurum. 

Imamoglu also has critics

Allegations of fraud, corruption and voter coercion have dogged elections in Turkey and Imamoglu’s victories were often seen as proof that Turkish democracy was still functional and that elections could actually be won against the increasingly authoritarian AKP government.

Of course, there has also been criticism of Imamoglu. When parts of Istanbul were affected by a flood in 2019, he was on summer vacation and stayed away. When an earthquake struck Elazig province in eastern Turkey in 2020, he visited the city along with many other politicians but then travelled to another part of Turkey for a ski holiday.

“It’s normal for a family man to spend two days on vacation with his children,” Imamoglu told critics.