Erdoğan's Coup to the Opposition in Turkey

Today, very critical developments are taking place in Turkey. An operation was conducted against Ekrem İmamoğlu, the mayor of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality and prospective rival of Erdoğan in the upcoming presidential elections, as well as several opposition municipalities in İstanbul. 104  were detained in home raids. İmamoğlu's university diploma was arbitrarily invalidated yesterday, thereby "legally" obstructing his candidacy for the presidency. Erdoğan had reached a point where winning the elections seems impossible. Therefore, severe operations have been underway for some time, including the operation against SEP, representing a sharp departure from governance based on Western-style democracy.
Journalists, Kurdish municipal mayors, and reformist left-wing parties in parliamentary alliance with the Kurdish movement were also arrested through operations a month ago. Today, Erdoğan has moved to arrest his primary opposition rival. All demonstrations have been banned in Istanbul for 4 days, yet youth organized a mass university student protest, defying the ban. Some others are on the way to defend democratic freedoms.
The accusations against municipal mayors, including financing the PKK and associating with terrorist organizations, could result in the appointment of government trustees to Istanbul’s administration. The detention period is four days, during which further extraordinary developments may unfold in Turkey. The SEP views this process as a judiciary coup and the destruction of democratic rights. SEP calls for and actively supports critical support with bourgeois opposition-led demonstrations without sectarianism, and pushes for mass protests.
In a world where Trump and authoritarian regimes represent the "new normal" of the global system, developments in Turkey directly mirror global trends.