IstanbulAccording to state-run media, the mayors of three significant southern Turkish cities were arrested on Saturday, adding to the growing number of opposition leaders incarcerated since the mayor of Istanbul was imprisoned in March.
According to Anadolu Agency, early-morning raids resulted in the arrest of Zeydan Karalar, the leader of Adana municipality, and Abdurrahman Tutdere, the mayor of Adiyaman. Both belong to the Republican People’s Party, or CHP, which is the biggest opposition party.
According to Anadolu, the Antalya Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office arrested Muhittin Bocek, the CHP mayor of Antalya, along with two other suspects in a separate bribery probe.
Many believe that the surge of arrests that CHP executives have experienced this year is an attempt to discredit Turkey’s main opposition party. The arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu sparked the biggest mass rallies Turkey has witnessed in over a decade, despite the government’s insistence that prosecutors and the judiciary operate independently.
Tutdere was detained in the capital, Ankara, where he resides, while Karalar was detained close to Istanbul. Tutdere announced his transfer to Istanbul on X. Additionally, police searched the municipal buildings in Adiyaman and Adana.
As part of the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office investigation into claims of organized crime, bribery, and bid-rigging, ten individuals—including Karalar and Tutdere—were taken into custody. It claimed in a statement that the businessman who provided the information against Karalar and Tutdere did so after being arrested for bribery and operating a criminal organization.
Prosecutors also claimed that the mayors had asked business leaders who did business with the town for unfair financial perks.
The mayors’ detentions come after other officials from CHP-controlled municipalities were arrested in recent months.
CHP Chairman Ozgur Ozel called a meeting of the party’s top brass after they were arrested. The CHP mayor of Ankara, meantime, questioned why the same level of judicial scrutiny was not applied to towns under the authority of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s party as it was to opposition leaders.
No one should expect us to believe in justice or accept the rule of law in a system where the law is twisted and twisted by politics, when justice is applied to one group and ignored by another. Mansur Yavas shared something on X.
An increase of arrests directed at the opposition
Imamoglu, who is seen as the primary opponent of Erdogan’s 22-year dictatorship, was imprisoned four months ago on charges of corruption.
As part of an investigation into allegations of fraud and tender-rigging, 137 municipal officials and the previous CHP mayor of Izmir, the third-largest city in Turkey, were arrested earlier this week. In what Soyer’s attorney called a blatantly unfair, illegal, and politically driven judgment, former Mayor Tunc Soyer and fifty-nine other people were imprisoned on Friday pending trial.
State-run media also said Friday that 34 people were arrested on suspicion of corruption, including the CHP mayor of Manavgat, a Mediterranean vacation city in Antalya province.
After being imprisoned, Imamoglu was formally nominated as his party’s presidential candidate. The next election in Turkey is scheduled for 2028, however it may happen earlier.
The CHP achieved notable victories in local elections a year before to the crackdown. Several cities that were once thought to be Erdogan’s strongholds fell to the opposition, including Adiyaman, which was badly damaged by the 2023 earthquake.
