Turkish courts have arrested 12 of 33 people detained in an operation targeting a district municipality run by the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) in southern Turkey, the latest in a growing crackdown on CHP-controlled municipalities, Turkish Minute reported, citing the DHA news agency.
Prosecutors in Mersin on April 10 ordered the detention of 33 people in a raid on the CHP-run Yenişehir Municipality over allegations of bid rigging, bribery and extortion.
Those detained included Yenişehir Deputy Mayor Ümit Civan as well as municipal officials and business figures.
After being questioned by police 12 suspects including the deputy mayor, two department heads, seven municipal employees and five company owners were arrested pending trial, according to DHA.
Nineteen suspects were released under judicial supervision, while two were freed after questioning by prosecutors.
Authorities also ordered the seizure of 29 properties and 13 vehicles as part of the investigation.
The operation targeted a municipality that the CHP won with 62 percent of the vote in the most recent local elections, adding to criticism that opposition-held cities are increasingly being subjected to legal pressure.
The arrests came as senior CHP officials stepped up their criticism of what they describe as politically motivated investigations following the arrest of Ankara provincial chair Ümit Erkol in a separate corruption probe.
Meanwhile, provincial chairmen from all 81 provinces gathered in Ankara and issued a joint statement condemning the operations against the party and calling for early elections.
Reading the statement İstanbul provincial chair Özgür Çelik said the CHP was being subjected to a “systematic siege” targeting its elected officials, including mayors and party leaders.
The statement said the investigations were an attack on the “national will” and urged authorities to create a democratic environment in which voters could “have their say at the ballot box without delay.”
The provincial leaders also voiced support for CHP leader Özgür Özel’s call for early elections, describing them as “not a choice but a requirement of loyalty to democracy and respect for the national will.”
The CHP made major gains in the March 2024 local elections, taking control of key municipalities across the country. Since October 2024 prosecutors have opened a series of corruption and misconduct investigations into CHP-run municipalities, in what the party says is an effort to weaken the opposition force that won a nationwide plurality in those elections.
In March 2025 İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, the party’s top potential challenger to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, was also arrested as part of the same crackdown and remains in jail. The main court case accusing him of corruption began last month and is ongoing.
