Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IBB) Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, Beylikdüzü Mayor Murat Çalık and Şişli Mayor Resul Emrah Şahan were remanded in custody on corruption and terrorism charges earlier today. All the three mayors of the CHP have been suspended from office and a trustee was appointed to Şişli Municipality.

After the Newroz celebrations in Istanbul, the Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) Co-Chair Tuncer Bakırhan, accompanied by a delegation, met with officials of the Republican People’s Party (CHP) following the imprisonment and suspension of the three CHP mayors.

Speaking here, Özel stated: “We thank the DEM Party for this invaluable solidarity and for their determined and faithful contribution to the process from beginning to end. Newroz was celebrated all over Anatolia this week. It was celebrated in all cities. It is a new beginning, a new awakening. It is the blossoming of hopes for peace in the new year. We will continue to be here with the same determination, courage and strength both in our struggle for democracy and in the joint struggle for peace in Turkey in the coming period.”

Tuncer Bakırhan said, “We come from a political tradition that has experienced many such coups,” and continued: “We know these coups well, we know that these coups will eventually be confronted with the power of the people and shattered. This is an attempt to bring democratic politics to its knees through the judiciary. There is a very important tradition of resistance in these lands. It will be the same today. Those who try to design politics with this judicial stick should learn lessons from this. We are not only talking about a metropolitan city in Turkey. We are talking about one of the most important cities in the world.

The mayor of this city, as renowned as Turkey itself, was detained and jailed for no reason at all. These coups should be abandoned as soon as possible. What happened in Istanbul at a time with a peace process and Turkey's democratization on the agenda is damaging to the spirit of peace. This country needs to get rid of both military and political coups. Military coups have stopped, but it is not clear when we will face political coups. As the DEM Party, we are against usurping the will of the people through extralegal means and political coups. Our attitude is clear. Wherever there is unlawfulness and injustice, wherever the will of Kurds and Turks is usurped, we are there. We are in solidarity. We will always stand against this injustice.”

Answering questions from journalists, Bakırhan stated the following: “Turkey has entered a new process of discussion. Hope has emerged. For days, we have been in Newroz squares, where expectation for a democratic ground, for a democratic Turkey where people can live fraternally and equally with their language and will is at its peak. Such attempts affect and damage these processes. Turkey does not need İmamoğlu to get detained or jailed. Turkey needs democracy. The people of Turkey need a democratic ground without trustees, without oppression, without the use of the judicial stick. The government should listen to the voice of the people. What they are doing is harming 85 million people. Each one of us became 3 percent poorer overnight. Whose benefit is this operation for? It is not in Turkey's interest. This is not the way.”