Turkish Police Arrest 3 More Mayors From Opposition Party CHP
Turkish police have arrested three more mayors of the country’s largest opposition party, reportedly as part of an investigation into organised crime. The mayors are from major cities.
The Turkish prosecutor’s office reports that the mayors of Adana (Zeydan Karalar), the country’s fourth city, and Adiyaman (Abdurrahman Tutdere) have been arrested. Turkish media report that the mayor of the large seaside city of Antalya, Muhittin Böcek, has also been arrested.
The mayors of Adana, Adiyaman and Antalya are all members of the CHP. The leader of that party is Ekrem İmamoğlu, the now-suspended mayor of Istanbul, the country’s largest city.
He was arrested in March on suspicion of bribery. Critics say the arrest is politically motivated, as he is the main rival of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of the conservative AKP party.
After İmamoğlu’s arrest, unrest persisted in Turkey for weeks. In several cities, hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets, despite a ban on demonstrations. These were the largest protests in Turkey in more than 10 years. Riots broke out in several places.
More and more CHP members arrested
In recent months, more CHP supporters and officials have been arrested. On Tuesday, 120 more people were arrested at Izmir City Hall. Izmir is considered a stronghold of the CHP, the center-left secular Republican People’s Party.
Mansur Yavas, the CHP mayor of the capital Ankara, condemned the arrests of his three party members via X. “In a system where the law is subject to politics, where the law is applicable to one group but unknown to the other, no one can expect us to have confidence in the rule of law or to believe in the judiciary,” said Yavas. “We will not bow to justice, anarchy or political operations.”
Erdogan still a candidate for president?
The authoritarian Erdogan has been in power in Turkey since 2003, first as prime minister and since 2014 as president. After a constitutional amendment through a referendum in 2017, the position of prime minister was abolished and the center of gravity of the political system shifted to the presidency.
Erdogan won the last presidential election in 2023 against CHP candidate Kemal Kilicdaroglu. But CHP convincingly won the local elections last year. The next presidential and parliamentary elections are scheduled for 2028.
It is not yet clear whether Erdogan will be a candidate then. Early elections would have to be called for that, so that Erdogan can participate thanks to an exception, or a constitutional amendment would be needed.
