Fifteen people, including a former district mayor from the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), have been arrested in a bribery and organized crime investigation in the northwestern Turkish province of Bursa, Turkish Minute reported.
Turgay Erdem, who served as mayor of Bursa’s Nilüfer district between 2019 and 2024, was among 22 suspects taken into custody last week as part of a corruption probe launched by the Bursa Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office.
The prosecutor’s office said the operation targeted individuals accused of establishing and managing a criminal organization, bribery and laundering assets derived from crime.
Seven others, including Erdem’s wife and brother-in-law, were released under judicial supervision, while one suspect remains at large.
As part of the investigation, officials seized cash, jewelry, real estate, vehicles, bank accounts and cryptocurrency holdings believed to be linked to the alleged crimes. A company implicated in the probe was also placed under the control of the Savings Deposit Insurance Fund (TMSF).
Erdem, an architect by profession, was first elected mayor in 2019 and was not nominated by his party in the March 2024 local polls.
Nilüfer remains one of the CHP’s strongholds in northwestern Turkey, where the party’s new mayor, Şadi Özdemir, was elected last year with nearly 59 percent of the vote.
The arrests are the latest in a series of corruption and misconduct probes targeting CHP figures across Turkey, which party officials say are politically motivated.
Since October 2024 more than 10 CHP mayors, including İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, have been detained or placed under pretrial arrest on charges including bribery, corruption and alleged links to terrorism.
The CHP has described the investigations as part of a government campaign to undermine elected opposition officials following the party’s success in the March 2024 local elections, when it won control of most major cities.
Rights groups have warned that the series of detentions further weakens democratic opposition in Turkey ahead of future national polls.
