Turkish authorities on Tuesday detained the mayor of Bursa, Turkey’s fourth-largest city, along with 54 others in a sweeping corruption investigation, in the latest legal move against municipalities run by the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), Turkish Minute reported.
Mustafa Bozbey, the CHP mayor of the Bursa Metropolitan Municipality, was taken into custody as part of an investigation led by the Bursa Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office on charges of money laundering and establishing or leading a criminal organization, with prosecutors identifying him as the alleged head of the network.
The operation, carried out in coordinated raids across five provinces, targeted 59 suspects, 55 of whom were detained, according to the prosecutor’s office. Those taken into custody included several of Bozbey’s family members, including his wife, daughter and two brothers.
The investigation centers on alleged irregularities in construction projects in Bursa’s Nilüfer district, where authorities say increased construction rights were granted in exchange for bribes, allowing developers to obtain illicit financial gains.
Among those implicated is former Nilüfer mayor Turgay Erdem, who was jailed in October 2025 in a related investigation on charges including bribery and forming a criminal organization.
Opposition figures quickly condemned the operation, with CHP deputy parliamentary group chair Gökhan Günaydın saying only municipalities run by his party were being targeted, while no similar action had been taken against those governed by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) or its far-right ally, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP).
“If all operations are directed at CHP-run municipalities, what is this if not injustice and the instrumentalization of the judiciary and law enforcement?” he said on X.
The Bursa operation came as pressure intensified on CHP-run municipalities across Turkey. On Monday Uşak Mayor Özkan Yalım was arrested along with eight others in a bribery investigation, while four suspects were released under judicial supervision.
Prosecutors in that case accused municipal officials of bribery, extortion and manipulating public tenders, while Yalım denied the allegations, saying there was no concrete evidence that he had requested or received money.
The CHP moved quickly against Yalım after the case escalated. Party spokesman Zeynel Emre said the party leadership had unanimously decided to suspend Yalım’s membership, assign two lawyers to review the case and begin a disciplinary process after hearing his defense.
The case comes amid an expanding legal campaign against the CHP following its gains in the March 2024 local elections, when the party won control of many major cities and handed President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s ruling AKP one of its worst municipal defeats in years. Since October 2024 opposition mayors and municipal officials have faced a series of corruption and terrorism-related investigations that critics say are politically motivated.
The most prominent case is that of İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, a leading opposition figure and potential presidential challenger to Erdoğan whose arrest last year deepened concern about pressure on elected opposition officials. CHP leader Özgür Özel has said the party is under attack across the country and has pointed to the growing number of jailed opposition mayors as evidence of a broader crackdown.
