Turkey is moving to silence Erdogan by blocking the account on X

Access to the Social Media account of Istanbul’s prisoner -opposition mayor, Ekrem Imamoglu, has been blocked by the authorities in Turkey.

Imamoglu, the most important rival of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, can no longer send messages in Turkey to his 9.7 million followers on X. His account is still accessible abroad.

His social media feed has been his most important tool to communicate with his supporters and to keep himself in public interest.

He had posted daily by sending messages from prison through his lawyers. “It’s as if the authorities want to make him disappear,” said a commentator.

Imamoglu’s Republican People’s Party (CHP) – the most important opposition party in Turkey – told the BBC that blocking his account was a continuation of “the coup attempt on March 19”, when he was arrested.

“Now they will not even allow him to talk to the audience,” said CHP Secretary -General Selin Sayek Boke. ” It clearly shows the fear of those who are in power that they will lose power. It is a coup attempt against the next polls. “

Opinion polls suggest that Ekrem Imamoglu, who was chosen three times as the mayor of the largest city in Turkey, would win a presidential election if he could stand.

The following presidential elections will only be held in 2028.

A message on his account on Thursday said it was blocked because of a legal question, although it is still available in Turkey with the use of a virtual private network (VPN).

A lawyer who represents X said that at the request of the social media platform he had submitted a judicial challenge to the prohibition.

Officers of Justice in Istanbul investigate a position in the account of Imamoglu, based on the fact that it can be an incentive to commit crime, according to the President’s communication agency.

In that post last month, the mayor condemned his arrest and a broader action against the opposition and called on the nation to complain and “raise your voice”.

Some X users have replaced their profile photos with images of the mayor, including Yusuf Can, analyst at the Midden -Oosten program of the Wilson Center in Washington.

“Elon Musk has blocked the report of the hostage mayor and presidential candidate, at the request of Erdogan – the silence of the country’s most prominent opposition man. We are all imamoglu,” he said.

The mayor has been behind bars since March due to corruption, which he has denied.

He is held in Marmara High Security Prison in Silivri, on the outskirts of the city he was chosen to run.

He has a lot of company – around 100 people were arrested with him – including city officials and members of his party. Since then, dozens of more have been arrested, including his lawyers and lawyers who act for those lawyers.

Human rights groups say that the arrests are part of an accelerating attack in civil society in Turkey.

The supporters of Imamoglu say that the charges against him are politically motivated and that the courts of Turkey are armed. The government has said that the judiciary is independent.

In his most recent post, on Wednesday, Imamoglu called up supporters to join a protestrally in Istanbul that night.

It was one of the largest in recent weeks with tens of thousands showing up.

His arrest in March led to the largest anti-government protests in Turkey in more than ten years.

The protests were largely peaceful, but about 2,000 people were arrested in just a few days, many of them students.

The demonstrations take place in Istanbul and throughout the country, but figures have been smaller.