The Turkish government is tightening its grip on the opposition, with fresh detentions on Friday targeting elected officials from the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) as it faces a deepening leadership crisis.
Authorities carried out operations targeting CHP-run municipalities in İstanbul’s Adalar district and in southern Turkey over a range of allegations, including corruption and fraud.
Police conducted simultaneous raids in four cities, detaining 37 of 47 suspects named in detention warrants, the İstanbul prosecutor’s office said in a statement.
Among those detained was Adalar Mayor Ali Ercan Akpolat.
The suspects are accused of bribery, embezzlement, forgery of official documents, forming and leading a criminal organization, and abuse of office, according to the statement.
A separate operation targeted the municipality of Silifke in the southern coastal province of Mersin.
Turkish media reported that several people, including the mayor, were detained as part of an investigation into allegations of bribery, embezzlement, bid-rigging and abuse of office.
The detentions follow a series of operations over the past week against CHP municipalities, including in İstanbul’s Beylikdüzü and Silivri districts, as well as in the Seferihisar district in the western city of İzmir.
The CHP has accused the government of staging politically motivated operations aimed at weakening the opposition after it defeated President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in the 2024 local elections.
The party, however, has also been plunged into a deep leadership crisis after an Ankara court in May annulled its 2023 leadership election over alleged vote buying and reinstated former chairman Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu.
The ruling sparked protests from the CHP, which has been rising in the polls at the expense of Erdoğan, with the party’s headquarters stormed by the police in the wake of the decision.
Özgür Özel, a senior CHP figure and a prominent critic of Erdoğan who was removed as party leader under the court ruling, has called for an extraordinary congress, saying the party cannot be governed under what he described as an imposed leadership.
© Agence France-Presse