, the DHA news agency reported.){kind=link}
Twelve city officials were detained Thursday in an operation targeting the opposition-run Beşiktaş Municipality in İstanbul over alleged bid-rigging, marking the latest development in a government crackdown on the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), the DHA news agency reported.
Among those detained is Beşiktaş Deputy Mayor Ali Rıza Yılmaz. The İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office issued warrants for 12 people in total. Eleven were taken into custody during early morning operations, while the remaining suspect was detained later in the day.
The Beşiktaş Municipality, a CHP stronghold, was previously targeted in January, when Mayor Rıza Akpolat was arrested along with more than 20 others and removed from office as part of a similar bid-rigging investigation. Akpolat faces charges of “membership in a criminal organization” and “bribery.”
The CHP has denounced the investigations as politically motivated, accusing the government of targeting its municipalities in retaliation for the party’s sweeping victory in the March 2024 local elections.
Opposition mayors have faced mounting pressure since the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) suffered its worst electoral defeat in decades, losing control of dozens of municipalities to the opposition.
The government crackdown intensified last month with the arrest of İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu on corruption charges. A central figure in the opposition, İmamoğlu rose to prominence after his landmark victory in the 2019 İstanbul mayoral election and was re-elected in 2024. His arrest took place on the same day his party nominated him as its presidential candidate for the next presidential election scheduled for 2028. İmamoğlu is seen as Erdoğan’s strongest political rival.
His detention on March 19 sparked the largest protests in Turkey since the anti-government Gezi Park demonstrations in 2013. Many critics view the charges as politically motivated.
In a separate development, Fidan Gül, deputy mayor of İstanbul’s Beykoz district, was arrested on Wednesday in another bid-rigging probe. Her arrest is part of a broader investigation launched by the Beykoz Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office. That probe previously led to the February arrest of Beykoz Mayor Alaattin Köseler and 12 others, including municipal officials and businesspeople, on charges of bid-rigging and forming a criminal organization.
Köseler was later removed from office by the Interior Ministry.
CHP officials and government critics argue that the series of arrests and investigations are part of a systematic campaign to discredit the party and sideline İmamoğlu in the presidential race. They accuse the government of using the judiciary as a tool of political retaliation.
CHP-run municipalities have also come under scrutiny for alleged financial irregularities and unpaid debts to the government.