Turkish police on Friday detained 32 people in three separate investigations targeting municipalities run by the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) in İstanbul and the western province of Denizli, the latest in a growing series of probes into opposition-run municipalities.
According to Turkish Minute, prosecutors in İstanbul launched a second wave of operations targeting the CHP-run Üsküdar Municipality as part of an investigation into alleged bribery and misconduct in construction permit procedures.
The İstanbul Anatolian Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office said contractors and intermediaries were allegedly asked to provide financial benefits during occupancy permit applications in exchange for approval of buildings that violated zoning regulations.
Seven people were detained in the latest operation, including one municipal employee and six employees of the municipality’s subsidiary Kent A.Ş.
Earlier in the investigation, police detained 22 suspects and arrested nine of them, including Deputy Mayor Filiz Deveci and Kent A.Ş. General Manager Nazım Akkoyunlu.
Turkish media reported last month that the first Üsküdar operation targeted alleged irregularities in license and occupancy permit procedures.
Üsküdar Mayor Sinem Dedetaş, speaking at a city council meeting after the latest operation, said the investigation was politically motivated and questioned why allegations concerning previous periods had not been acted on earlier.
“The municipality was not established two years ago. There was a period before us as well. It is noteworthy that criminal complaints from the previous period were ignored, but that these issues are being brought up today,” 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 the district by about 8 percentage points, ending two decades of AKP rule.
In a separate investigation targeting the İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality, prosecutors issued detention warrants for 13 people over allegations of bid rigging in tenders carried out by the municipality’s Road Maintenance and Repair Directorate and Electronic Systems Directorate.
Police detained 12 suspects, while one person was reported to be abroad.
The İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office said the investigation was part of a larger probe into what prosecutors allege is a “criminal organization” led by İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, who was jailed in March 2025. İmamoğlu is seen as the most powerful political rival of President Erdoğan.
Meanwhile, prosecutors in Denizli launched an operation targeting the CHP-run Merkezefendi Municipality over allegations of bribery and bid rigging in municipal tenders. Turkish media reports said police detained 13 people, including Deputy Mayor Emrah Karan.
The latest detentions come amid an expanding wave of investigations targeting municipalities run by the CHP. On Thursday prosecutors in the western province of Eskişehir issued detention warrants for 60 suspects, including 33 municipal employees, in a corruption investigation targeting the CHP-run Tepebaşı Municipality. Police detained at least 23 people, including a deputy mayor.
The operations are part of an ongoing campaign that has put increasing pressure on CHP-run municipalities since the party’s sweeping gains in 2024’s local elections. Recent tallies in the Turkish media indicate that 23 CHP mayors have been jailed at some point since the March 31, 2024, local elections, 20 remain in jail and 25 have been removed from office.
CHP officials say the cases are politically motivated and are being used to roll back the party’s strong gains in the 2024 local elections, when it finished first nationwide in a vote for the first time since 1977 and won many of Turkey’s biggest cities.
