Protest against arrest
Kai Wegner canceled his visit to Istanbul
03/26/2025 – 5:24 p.m.Reading time: 1 min.
He had previously announced the cancellation of his visit to Berlin’s twin town of Istanbul. Now Kai Wegner is serious.
Berlin’s governing mayor Kai Wegner canceled his trip to Istanbul planned for early April. This was announced by Wegner’s office on Wednesday afternoon. According to the Senate Department, the reason is the detention of the mayor of Berlin’s partner city.
Ekrem İmamoğlu had been arrested with flimsy justifications shortly before his appointment as the presidential candidate of his party. He was also withdrawn from the mayor’s office. The allegation to the politician: alleged terrorist and corruption suspicion.
He looks at the development in Turkey “with great concern”, Wegner is quoted in the Senate announcement. “In a democracy, the rule of law, an independent judiciary and a fair political competition and free elections must be secured.” Therefore, he would cancel his trip to Istanbul. Wegner had previously announced the cancellation.
The background to the cancellation is the suspicion that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan could use the judiciary against İmamoğlu in order to proceed against a political adversary in the presidential race. Because the public prosecutor did not provide evidence of a possible guilt of İmamoğlus. The CHP still made İmamoğlu its presidential candidate.
As a result of Erdoğan’s approach, tens of thousands of demonstrators in Turkish cities such as Istanbul and Ankara took to protest against İmamoğlus arrest.
Wegner had wanted to meet İmamoğluhen during the planned visit to Istanbul. With a view to his Turkish counterpart, the ruling mayor repeated his demand from last week: “Solidarity with Ekrem İmamoğlu.”
