Twenty people including municipal officials and contractors have been detained as part of a corruption investigation targeting İstanbul’s Üsküdar Municipality, run by the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), Turkish Minute reported.
The detentions were carried out as part of an investigation by the İstanbul Anatolian Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office into allegations of bribery and irregularities in construction permit and occupancy approval processes.
Police conducted simultaneous raids at 30 locations in İstanbul and the northwestern province of Yalova, seizing digital materials.
The detainees include a deputy mayor and the general manager of municipal subsidiary Kent A.Ş., as well as several contractors and intermediaries.
Prosecutors allege that the municipal company facilitated illegal payments from contractors in exchange for easing building permit and occupancy procedures. Investigators also claim that applications were tracked through a color-coded system indicating whether payments had been made.
Municipality rejects allegations
The Üsküdar Municipality, however, denied the accusations, saying claims that its subsidiary was used for illegal gain or that unauthorized individuals interfered in official procedures were unfounded.
Mayor Sinem Dedetaş told Turkish media that she is not personally under investigation and denied claims of systemic wrongdoing.
She said her administration had introduced strict rules banning any form of donations or contributions linked to construction permits or licensing processes.
“There is no such demand, no donations being taken and no contribution requests. All of these were banned in our municipality,” she said.
Üsküdar, long a stronghold of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), fell to the CHP in the 2024 local elections as part of a broader opposition surge in major cities. Dedetaş won by about 8 percentage points, ending two decades of AKP rule.
Part of broader pressure on opposition municipalities
The operation comes amid a series of investigations targeting municipalities run by the CHP following its strong showing in the March 2024 local elections.
Since then, opposition-held municipalities have faced mounting legal and administrative pressure. A statement by municipal workers’ union Tüm Bel Sen said 85 municipalities have changed hands through trustee appointments, removals, arrests and shifts in city council control, affecting more than 8.8 million votes.
Recent cases have reinforced that trend. In Bursa, Mayor Mustafa Bozbey was arrested last week in a corruption probe involving dozens of suspects, while Uşak Mayor Özkan Yalım was jailed in a separate bribery investigation days earlier.
The CHP says such investigations are part of a broader campaign to undermine opposition-run municipalities, while government officials deny the claims, saying the probes are based on evidence of criminal wrongdoing.
The most prominent case is that of İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, a leading opposition figure and potential presidential challenger to President Erdoğan whose arrest last year deepened concern over pressure on elected opposition officials.
