Istanbul mayor put under investigation for words about attorney general's children
Istanbul Prosecutor General's Office has launched an investigation against the city mayor Ekrem Imamoglu on suspicion of threatening the family of Istanbul Prosecutor General Akın Gürlek. German newspaper BirGün reported this on January 20, citing the agency.
"Listen, Attorney General, I say to you: we will eradicate from the minds of this nation the mind that rules you in order to save even your children - we will spare them from such treatment. <...>. Let no one take your children away from your home in the early morning," the Istanbul mayor told Gürlek.
These words, according to the publication, are what prompted the launch of an investigation on suspicion of threatening an official whose job it is to fight terrorism.
"The Istanbul chief prosecutor has opened an investigation against me on charges of threatening him and his family. There is not a word of threat in my speech. In particular, I did not and will not threaten anyone through his family and children," Imamoglu wrote on his X page (former Twitter).
According to the Istanbul mayor, everything he said was just a call to achieve an impartial law for the children and future of all people in Turkey.
Earlier, in April 2024, Ivan Starodubtsev, a political scientist and expert practitioner on Turkey, said that Imamoglu is the opposition's most preferred candidate for the future president of the republic. According to him, Imamoglu could succeed Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
