Ekrem Imamoğlu is the elected mayor of Istanbul and the presidential candidate for Turkey’s Republican People’s Party. He has been held in pretrial detention since March 2025. I am writing these lines from a prison cell in Silivri. My imprisonment isn’t merely a personal legal matter. It reflects a deeper rupture in Turkey’s democracy, its commitment to the rule of law, and its relationship with the EU. For years, relations between Turkey and the EU have lacked honesty and balance. Officially