The detention of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu “is depressing for democracy in Turkey, but it is certainly also depressing for relations between Europe and Turkey,” outgoing German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on March 20.

Speaking on arrival at an EU leaders’ summit in Brussels, Scholz reflected that the taking into custody of Imamoglu—seen by many Turks as the only politician who stands a chance of ending the long reign of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the polls—was “a very, very bad sign” for Turkey’s democracy and relations with the EU, as per the AP. He called on Turkey’s government to put “an immediate end to this.”

He also reportedly stated: “We can only call for an immediate end to this and for the opposition and the government to compete with each other rather than the opposition being put on trial.”

Imamoglu was detained—and Turkey was cast into an unofficial state of emergency—after hundreds of police officers carried out a dawn raid on his Istanbul home on March 19. At the weekend, he is due to be nominated by the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) as its candidate to challenge Erdogan, who has ruled for 22 years. However, authorities have also used a technical argument to strip him of his university degree, and, constitutionally, a presidential candidate must have such a degree.

Imamoglu, 54, has been harried by the regular opening of new investigations into his affairs and in February he was moved to call on Erdogan to give him an “honest fight”, saying: “The person trying to sideline me from politics is obvious — it is Mr President. I am calling on the president to be honest. This nation loves the brave and the honourable.”

On March 20, 71-year-old Erdogan broke his silence on the detention. He claimed that the CHP was attempting to cover up its own mistakes and deceive people with “theatrics”.

"We have neither the time to waste on pointless debates nor stacks of money to recklessly throw around," Erdogan said in an address in Ankara, as reported by Reuters.

He further remarked that the CHP’s issues "are not the country's issues, but the issues of a handful of opportunists in their headquarters", adding: "We have no time to waste on the opposition's theatrics."

Turkiye Today reported Erdogan as also saying: “They [the CHP] are aware that most of this information and documentation [in the investigation] has been forwarded to the judiciary by their own party members.”

The issues were internal matters for the CHP, he reiterated, remarking: “The effort to present the opposition’s internal struggles or legal issues as the country’s most important problem is the height of hypocrisy.”

In an interview with Reuters on March 20, CHP leader Ozgur Ozel—who since the detention has talked about a “coup attempt to deny the people the country’s next president”—said that despite the detention of Imamoglu, the party intended to on March 23 go ahead and nominate him as its presidential candidate. 

Said Ozel: "At the moment, Ekrem Imamoglu's freedoms are restricted, he is detained. But this doesn't change the [primary] ballot we will set up on Sunday, and Ekrem Imamoglu is our [sole] candidate at that ballot.

"We will support this candidacy until the end, all together. Even if Ekrem Imamoglu is arrested, Ekrem Imamoglu is our candidate."

If Imamoglu was legally barred from running, the CHP has a "plan B, plan C", Ozel said, saying he thought any candidate from the opposition would be able to defeat Erdogan and that they are "not without alternatives".

"We will win with Imamoglu. We will win easily. If Imamoglu is barred, we will certainly win," he also said.

The next presidential election does not have to take place until 2028 but there is growing speculation that Erdogan intends to call an early election in order to get around legal barriers to him claiming another term in office.