Last year, I was reelected mayor of Istanbul with 51% of the vote. It was the second time I had defeated the government-backed candidate. The first was in 2019 when the mayoral elections were annulled on flimsy pretexts; voters returned to the polls and handed us a victory by an even larger margin.
But this year, democracy in Turkey has entered its most perilous phase. The process started in March on the eve of my nomination as the presidential candidate of the CHP, the century-old Republican People’s party. This was when my university degree was abruptly annulled. Why is this relevant? Because, under the Turkish constitution, one must have a university degree to be able to run for president. Soon after, I was accused of corruption and “aiding a terrorist organisation”. For six months, I have been behind bars, arrested on politically motivated corruption charges based on “anonymous” witnesses. In a country bound by the European convention on human rights, this is an outrage.
