 has been detained along with 20 others as part of a bribery and money laundering investigation based in the northwestern province of Bursa, the DHA news agency reported on Friday.){kind=link}
A former district mayor from Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) has been detained along with 20 others as part of a bribery and money laundering investigation based in the northwestern province of Bursa, the DHA news agency reported on Friday.
Turgay Erdem, 66, who served as mayor of the Nilüfer district from 2019 to 2024, was taken into custody at his home in the nearby district of Mudanya on Friday morning. The operation was carried out under the orders of the Bursa Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office and led by the police department’s anti-smuggling and organized crime unit (KOM).
In a statement the Bursa Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office said Erdem is being investigated on accusations of “establishing and managing a criminal organization, membership in a criminal organization, bribery and laundering assets derived from crime.”
Police conducted simultaneous raids in three provinces, targeting 23 suspects. Twenty-one people were detained, including Erdem’s wife, while two others are reportedly abroad. Searches were carried out at 24 residences, eight companies and 12 vehicles belonging to the suspects.
Prosecutors have not released further details about the nature of the alleged bribery scheme or whether the investigation is linked to broader corruption probes involving local administrations.
Erdem, an architect by profession, was first elected mayor in 2019 and did not seek re-election in the March 2024 local polls. Nilüfer, a district of Bursa, is widely regarded as a CHP stronghold in northwestern Turkey.
The CHP has been under mounting government pressure since October of last year.
More than 10 CHP mayors, including popular İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, have been put in pretrial detention on charges such as bribery, corruption and terrorism-related offenses, accusations widely seen as politically motivated.
More than 500 people affiliated with the party or the İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality have also been detained or arrested over the past year.
The party and its supporters say the operations targeting the CHP are designed to neutralize elected officials and sideline opposition leaders after the party’s gains in the local elections of 2024 when the CHP came out as the most successful party.
Rights groups have raised an alarm over the series of arrests, saying they further undermine democratic opposition in Turkey ahead of future national elections.