Hundreds of thousands of people have taken to the streets across the country in response to the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, the chief political rival of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Imamoglu was arrested on March 19 on corruption and terrorism charges — days before he was due to be selected as the 2028 presidential nominee for the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP). He and his supporters have denied the allegations and said they were politically motivated.
While the arrest has drawn criticism from outside Turkey, and the protests are the largest since the 2013 Gezi Park demonstrations, it’s not clear that they will impact the U.S.-Turkey relationship. Three days before Imamoglu’s arrest, President Donald Trump and Erdogan spoke on the phone about issues ranging from the war in Ukraine to Syria to counterterrorism, and multiple reports suggested Erdogan was seeking a late-April visit to the White House.
