The Mayor of Barcelona and Vice President of Eurocities, Jaume Collboni, participated on August 28 in Istanbul in events supporting Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, who was detained and removed from his position as Mayor of Istanbul for political reasons on March 19 of this year, and imprisoned in Silivri prison.

In addition to Jaume Collboni, the events were attended by the acting mayor, Nuri Aslan; the imprisoned mayor’s wife, Dilek Kaya İmamoğlu; and around ten mayors from European cities, including those of Athens, Haris Doukas; Budapest, Gergely Karácsony; Sofia, Vassil Terziev –also president of the B40 Balkan Cities Network–; Utrecht, Sharon Dijksma; and Zagreb, Tomislav Tomašević. Collboni was also accompanied by the Commissioner for European Affairs of the Barcelona City Council, Mar Jiménez.

In front of Silivri prison, alongside İmamoğlu’s wife and the rest of the delegation, Collboni stated that “Eurocities has a clear mandate to promote and defend local democracy, and that is why we want to express our solidarity with Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, unjustly imprisoned despite being a democratically elected leader.” He added, “City diplomacy is our path. United, we can shed light on the principles we defend and strengthen institutions. We will continue to stand by our colleague; his courage inspires us and commits us to continue defending democracy.”

Earlier in the morning, the delegation of local representatives visited the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IMM), where they were received by acting mayor Nuri Aslan. During the visit, Collboni delivered the Eurocities Special Democracy Award to Mayor İmamoğlu, which was collected by his wife, Dilek Kaya İmamoğlu.

The Mayor of Barcelona said he traveled to Istanbul to “express our solidarity with Mayor İmamoğlu, as cities are the space where democracy becomes real, where people live with dignity, equality, and receive public services that meet their needs.” “We unite in defense of democracy in these difficult times.”

Eurocities

The Mayor of Barcelona led the Eurocities delegation in his role as Vice President of this network of cities, which brings together more than 200 major European cities representing around 130 million people. The network was created to defend urban interests before European institutions, promote cooperation between cities, and drive policies that improve citizens’ lives, with a strong emphasis on local democracy, sustainability, and innovation.

Meeting with LGTBI Activists

During the stay in Istanbul, Jaume Collboni met with LGTBI activists with the aim of supporting a community that suffers significant repression and rights violations in Turkey. The mayor also learned about the challenges faced by organizations defending the LGTBI community, such as the Istanbul Pride Committee or BATOÇA (Association for Social Peace Studies), among others.

This past June, Collboni participated in the ‘Pride Freedom Celebration in Budapest’, the demonstration in defense of LGTBI rights that this year marks its 30th anniversary and had been banned by the Hungarian government.