Athens mayor expresses support for Istanbul counterpart
Athens Mayor Kostas Bakoyannis on Wednesday expressed support for his Istanbul counterpart, Ekrem Imamoglu, and for the people of Turkey.
“We stand by Ekrem, we stand by the people of Turkey, we stand on the right side of history. Justice will prevail,” Bakoyannis said during a visit to Istanbul, where he and the mayors of Florence, Hanover and Paris were attending an event on “Cities: Democracy and Development,” which was also being addressed by the head of the Eurocities European Network.
Bakoyannis’ statement referred to a decision taken by a Turkish court earlier this month sentencing Imamoglu – who leads the main opposition CHP party – to two years in prison and banning him from politics over a press release issued three years ago, in which he called members of Turkey’s supreme election council “fools.”
The decision to ban him from politics may hamper his ability to run against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in next year’s general election.
“The trial of his conduct has been nothing more than a politically motivated attack on a member of the opposition,” Eurocities, a network of more than 200 cities – including Athens – in 38 countries, said in a statement following the ruling on December 14.
“As mayors we represent the closest level of government to people and have an essential role to play in upholding these principles, which must not be undermined by other levers of government,” it said.
“The decision taken in Turkish courts to persecute a political opponent of the incumbent president, represents a sham of democracy, and risks setting Turkey back years in terms of good governance,” the statement added.
