Ekrem Imamoglu, potential future vice-president of the main opponent of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was targeted this Sunday during a stop in the middle of an electoral tour in Erzurum, in the east of the country.
The campaign bus of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, a champion of the opposition to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan since his election in 2019, was stoned in eastern Turkey, a stronghold of the presidential party AKP.
Images released by the office of the mayor of the economic capital show the windows of the bus shattered by stones, during a stop in the middle of an electoral tour in Erzurum, in the east of the country.
Ekrem Imamoglu was giving a speech from the roof of the bus when stones started to be thrown at the windows, forcing him to take refuge inside. Police used water cannons to disperse the attackers, according to footage posted on social media.
Uncertain election
A rising star on the Turkish political scene, Ekrem Imamoglu was prevented from running for president by a court conviction which he appealed.
The Turkish opposition alliance promises, in the event of victory in the presidential and legislative elections of May 14, to break with two decades of legacy of President Erdogan.
The latter faces the most uncertain election since he came to power, confronted for the first time in twenty years with a united opposition in a country in crisis.
Facing him, three contenders but only one real adversary: Kemal Kiliçdaroglu, 74, candidate of an alliance of six opposition parties which goes from the nationalist right to the democratic left, and which is dominated by the CHP (social- democrat) founded by the father of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.
Kemal Kiliçdaroglu indicated that in the event of victory, Ekrem Imamoglu would be one of his vice-presidents.
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