Labour's Deafening Silence on Turkey's Jailed Opposition Leader Raises Eyebrows

European leaders speak out as Istanbul’s popular mayor is imprisoned — but Labour remains curiously quiet.

https://www.socialeurope.eu/labours-deafening-silence-on-turkeys-jailed-opposition-leader-raises-eyebrows



One of my earliest acts of international solidarity came 45 years ago, when I joined a high-level European trade union delegation to Turkey, shortly after the military coup of 1980. We were a diverse group — British and European trade unionists — trying to make sense of a complex and tense political situation. George Bolton, the imposing leader of the Scottish Union of Mineworkers, brought a touch of working-class diplomacy to our first breakfast in Istanbul by placing two bottles of duty-free Teacher’s whisky on the table — a gesture meant to ease language barriers and lift spirits.

Nearly half a century later, Turkey is once again in the international spotlight. This time, it is due to the imprisonment of Ekrem İmamoğlu, the Mayor of Istanbul and Turkey’s most popular political figure. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, increasingly seen as an autocratic ruler, has had İmamoğlu jailed — a move that has drawn condemnation across Europe.

İmamoğlu is the presidential candidate for the Republican People’s Party (CHP, by its Turkish acronym), a social democratic party and Labour’s sister party in the European political family. His arrest has sparked an outpouring of support from European institutions and social democratic leaders. The European Commission, Members of the European Parliament, and national parliamentarians across the continent have denounced the crackdown and demanded his release.

The Party of European Socialists swiftly dispatched a solidarity mission to Turkey, led by Stefan Löfven, the former Swedish prime minister. George Papandreou, former Greek prime minister and president of the Socialist International, travelled to a mass solidarity rally in Istanbul. He also penned a passionate appeal in the Greek newspaper Ta Nea, urging the release of the imprisoned mayor. Amid this chorus of solidarity, one voice is conspicuously absent: Britain’s Labour Party.

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