ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Friday that Washington is concerned about Turkey’s crackdown on people protesting the removal of Istanbul's mayor, but remains committed to its broader partnership with Ankara.
“We’re watching it. We’ve expressed concern. We don’t like to see instability like that in the governance of any country that’s such a close ally,” Rubio told reporters during a press briefing on Friday.
“Their argument is that the mayor is involved in corruption, that this has been a longstanding issue that it’s finally got acted upon, and that he is seeking refuge behind his politics. I don’t know all the facts about it. Obviously, that’s not what the mayor is saying or what the political opposition is saying, which is that this is a leader that might have won the election had he been allowed to run,” Rubio said.
He added that while Washington is troubled by the developments, it remains committed to its broader relationship with Turkey. “I think it’s possible to raise concerns and at the same time understand we have a lot of other things to partner on as well,” he said.
In Washington on Tuesday, Rubio told Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan that the US is concerned about the recent crackdown on protesters in Turkey and the dismissal of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu.
The mayor, who was seen as the potential main rival to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the 2028 presidential race, was dismissed last week after he was charged with corruption. Imamoglu was one of 99 suspects accused of bribery, extortion, fraud, unlawful data acquisition, and tender rigging, according to Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency.
In a court statement published by Anadolu, Imamoglu dismissed the accusations as politically motivated and part of a broader “conspiracy” by prosecutors. “Every page they write is garbage,” he said, rejecting allegations of terrorism links as “offensive.”
Imamoglu has been jailed pending trial. His arrest triggered days of nationwide protests.
By Thursday, more than 1,900 people had been detained, according to Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya, who warned there would be “no concessions” for “those who attempt to terrorize the streets, our national and spiritual values, and our policemen.”
Eleven journalists were detained in dawn raids on Monday for covering the protests, including AFP photographer Yasin Akgul. All have since been released. On Wednesday, BBC journalist Mark Lowen was also detained while reporting on the demonstrations. He was held for 17 hours before being deported on the grounds that he posed "a threat to public order," the BBC stated.
