 has intensified over the past year, with 16 mayors jailed and one put under house arrest, according to a report from the party on the toll of the ongoing crackdown.){kind=link}
A sweeping crackdown on Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) has intensified over the past year, with 16 mayors jailed and one put under house arrest, according to a report from the party on the toll of the ongoing crackdown.
The operations, which began after the CHP’s major victories in the March 2024 local elections, now span a significant number municipalities in what critics call the largest campaign of repression against an opposition party in decades.
The wave of arrests began in October 2024 with the arrest of Ahmet Özer, the newly elected mayor of İstanbul’s Esenyurt district, on terrorism-related charges. Since then, the scope of investigations has expanded to encompass 17 municipalities, including major metropolitan areas such as İstanbul, Adana, Antalya and Adıyaman. Prosecutors have cited a range of allegations, including corruption, bid rigging and aiding a terrorist organization.
The government, led by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), suffered its worst electoral defeat in two decades in March 2024, losing control of several key cities to the CHP. Critics argue that the subsequent crackdown is politically motivated and designed to stifle dissent through legal means.
Tensions escalated further with the arrest of İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu in March, on the same day he was named the CHP’s presidential candidate. Charged with corruption, İmamoğlu’s arrest triggered the country’s largest protests since the 2013 Gezi Park demonstrations. Although nightly protests subsided after a week, the CHP has continued to organize rallies nationwide, which have bolstered the party’s popularity in recent polling.
In the latest round of arrests, three more CHP mayors were detained on July 5. Antalya Metropolitan Mayor Muhittin Böcek was arrested the same day. On Tuesday Adana Metropolitan Mayor Zeydan Karalar was arrested and Adıyaman Mayor Abdurrahman Tutdere was put under house arrest. Manavgat Mayor Niyazi Nefi Kara and Ahmet Şahin, deputy mayor of İstanbul’s Büyükçekmece district, were also arrested on Tuesday.
Among the other high-profile arrests are those of the mayors of İzmir and İstanbul districts including Beşiktaş, Beykoz, Beylikdüzü and Şişli.
Fifteen of the 17 targeted mayors have been removed from office.
In addition to the mayors, dozens of municipal officials have also been arrested as part of the same investigations, though the exact number remains unclear.
In one instance 10 additional people were detained on Wednesday in an expanding corruption probe targeting the İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality. The detainees include drivers of senior city officials, a municipal accountant, private sector workers and businessmen, all reportedly held based on witness testimony.
The government has defended the arrests as lawful and unrelated to political considerations. However, opposition leaders and rights advocates say the judiciary is being used as a tool to eliminate political rivals.
Despite the mounting pressure, CHP leader Özgür Özel vowed to continue the party’s resistance. On Wednesday he called on citizens to join a rally in İstanbul’s Sancaktepe district, saying on social media, “History will prove us right. We will restore justice and prosperity with the people.”
Türkiye’nin gözünün içine baka baka söylüyorum: Tarih bizi haklı çıkaracak!
Bu topraklara adaleti ve bereketi getirmek için milletimizle birlikteyiz.
Bu akşam mücadelemizi Sancaktepe’den sürdürüyoruz!
🗓️ 9 Temmuz Çarşamba
⏰ 20.30
📍Sancaktepe Sarıgazi Demokrasi Caddesi pic.twitter.com/2LJYGVQIlT— Özgür Özel (@eczozgurozel) July 9, 2025
CHP MPs march to Justice Ministry in protest of arrests
Amid the sweeping crackdown, senior lawmakers from the CHP marched from the Turkish Parliament to the Justice Ministry in Ankara on Wednesday. Holding a banner that read “Sovereignty belongs to the nation,” CHP lawmakers chanted slogans and listed the names of jailed mayors, responding with “They are with us” after each name.
During the protest, CHP deputy parliamentary group chair Gökhan Günaydın accused the government of applying justice selectively, contrasting the recent wave of arrests targeting opposition mayors with past corruption scandals involving members of the ruling party.
Referring to the December 17-25 bribery and corruption investigations in 2013, which implicated the sons of several Cabinet ministers as well as a son of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Günaydın criticized the lack of accountability at the time. The investigations led to the resignation of four ministers, but Erdoğan dismissed them as a political plot by sympathizers of the Gülen movement, inspired by the views of the late Islamic cleric Fethullah Gülen. Hundreds of police officers and prosecutors involved in the probes were later dismissed or reassigned, with many facing criminal charges of attempting to overthrow the government and membership in a terrorist organization.
Günaydın argued that while the government ignores credible corruption allegations within its own ranks, including the discovery of large sums of cash, money-counting machines and luxury items, it uses the judiciary as a tool to suppress dissent and target the opposition.
“If there were even a shred of judicial order in this country, you would never have seen the light of day!” he said, addressing the ruling AKP.