According to official figures, as of April 21 Turkey had more than 95,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19, lifting the country above China to become the seventh most-affected country in the world. Some 2,259 have died.
On April 20, Erdogan announced fresh measures to curb the spread, including a four-day curfew. Earlier in the month, the Interior Ministry banned municipalities from collecting their own donations to help those most affected by the pandemic, and blocked the bank accounts used to do so.
Erdogan has taken aim at opposition-run municipalities, accusing them of forming a “parallel state” and using “terrorist” methods to undermine the government’s efforts. All measures, he said, must be taken and run by the central government, which has launched its own campaign to raise donations. “Fighting the pandemic requires central planning and strong coordination,” Erdogan said on April 20, calling on opposition-run municipalities to halt their “political show”.
Analysts say the government’s steps mark the continuation of a high-stakes political battle being waged since the AKP lost power over a string of major Turkish cities, including the economic and cultural hub Istanbul, the capital Ankara, and other major industrial, tourist and agricultural centres such as Izmir, Adana, Antalya and Mersin in elections in March last year.
Electoral authorities called a re-run in Istanbul, which Imamoglu won in June with a margin of more than 800,000 votes.
Imamoglu, a member of the opposition Republic People’s Party, CHP, is widely seen as the only political figure capable of threatening Erdogan’s increasingly authoritarian 18-year grip on power. Erdogan himself was a mayor of Istanbul.
“In any country in the world a city mayor who distributes bread and provisions would not be treated as the leader of a terrorist organisation,” Imamoglu said on April 22. “We have no other priority than serving the people.”
Journalist Leven Gultekin told his weekly show on Media Scope TV: “Erdogan cannot bear that the opposition uses the same methods [to rise in politics],”
“Opposition-run municipalities are banned from distributing provisions and bread with unlawful, unethical decisions,” he said. “Erdogan bans municipalities which can help millions of people in need, purely out of political calculation.”
The opposition CHP accused Erdogan of waging a campaign of “hate and revenge” against municipalities run by the party.
“Our country is not just fighting the pandemic; it is fighting the hubris syndrome of the palace,” said CHP spokesman Faik Oztrak, in reference to Erdogan’s presidential palace.
‘Is it a crime?’
