Mayors against Erdogan: Budapest’s Karácsony also visits Istanbul to see imprisoned mayor

It is a moral obligation to stand up for Ekrem Imamoglu, the imprisoned mayor of Istanbul, Gergely Karácsony, Budapest’s mayor, said in Istanbul on Thursday.

“The Turkish regime has prevented us from visiting Imamoglu, the mayor of Istanbul incarcerated by the Erdogan regime, in his prison,” Karácsony said in a post on Facebook.

The Budapest mayor arrived in Istanbul together with his counterparts from Barcelona, Zagreb, Sofia, Athens, Timisoara, and Utrecht to express solidarity with Imamoglu, and support the cause of free elections and the people of Türkiye.

“Imamoglu is a man of love, respect and modesty in an age when politics speaks more and more to hatred, offence, and arrogance. Each nation has the right to elect its leaders without any external influencing, but each nation also has the right to solidarity from others when their leaders abuse their powers and strip them of free elections,” Karácsony said.