Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) regained control of İstanbul’s Üsküdar Municipality on Tuesday in a city council vote held after the elected mayor was jailed and suspended and a court blocked her replacement from serving, the Anka news agency reported.
AKP candidate Dündar Ziya Gültekin won the acting mayor’s post with 23 votes in the fourth round, defeating Sibel Tan Çetinkaya of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), who received 19.
The result returns Üsküdar, a traditionally conservative district on İstanbul’s Asian side and home to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s private residence, to AKP control two years after Sinem Dedetaş ended three decades of rule by Islamist-rooted parties there.
Dedetaş, the district’s first female mayor, won the March 2024 election as a CHP candidate with 49.9 percent of the vote, defeating incumbent AKP mayor Hilmi Türkmen, who received 42.3 percent.
The CHP split in July after an Ankara court annulled its November 2023 leadership election and reinstated former chairman Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu. Ousted leader Özgür Özel and 90 other lawmakers left to establish the New Party, giving it 91 parliamentary seats and making it Turkey’s largest opposition group.
Mayors, city council members and local officials also left the CHP.
Dedetaş was arrested pending trial on July 31 on allegations of bribery, extortion through abuse of office and establishing and leading a criminal organization. The Interior Ministry subsequently suspended her.
The city council elected Çetinkaya acting mayor on August 5 with 22 votes, against Gültekin’s 18. Following an AKP challenge, the İstanbul 2nd Administrative Court suspended implementation of the council’s decision. A regional administrative court rejected an appeal against the suspension on September 2.
The council’s political balance shifted before the new vote. Four members elected on CHP tickets joined the AKP, while two opposition council members were jailed.
Gültekin received 21 votes in the first round, 22 in the second and 23 in both the third and fourth rounds. Çetinkaya received 19 votes in the final round.
Opposition officials accused city council members of crossing party lines under pressure. The secret ballot made it impossible to independently establish how individual members voted.
Speaking in Tekirdağ’s Çorlu district on Friday, before Tuesday’s vote, Özel accused the government of using detentions to keep opposition council members from voting and overturn the choice voters made in 2024.
“Then why are elections held?” Özel said. “If the margin is five, detain six.”
He accused İstanbul Governor Davut Gül of scheduling the vote while council members were in custody.
New Party spokesperson Zeynel Emre denounced the outcome on Tuesday, alleging that council members had faced pressure from government officials and the judiciary.
“This is theft,” Emre said. “A municipality has been stolen. The will of the people has been stolen.”
New Party İstanbul provincial chairman Özgür Çelik said eight opposition council members had been summoned to a courthouse after the previous election, two were jailed and four switched to the AKP.
“It was not the AKP that won the election in Üsküdar, but the prosecutors at the Kartal courthouse and İstanbul Governor Davut Gül,” Çelik said.
Dedetaş’s arrest is part of a series of criminal investigations targeting municipalities won by the CHP in the March 2024 local elections. The investigations have led to the detention, arrest or suspension of numerous mayors and municipal officials, most prominently İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, Erdoğan’s main political rival.
Opposition politicians say the investigations are politically motivated and intended to reverse their gains in the 2024 elections. The government denies political interference and claims Turkey’s judiciary operates independently.
Nine İstanbul districts change hands
Üsküdar’s transfer to AKP control brings to nine the number of İstanbul districts won by CHP candidates in 2024 that are now run by the AKP or government-appointed trustees, BirGün reported.
The winning CHP candidates in those districts received a combined 918,443 votes. The total covers Bayrampaşa, Beykoz, Çekmeköy, Esenyurt, Gaziosmanpaşa, Şile, Şişli, Tuzla and Üsküdar.
The changes followed arrests, suspensions and defections. Government-appointed trustees took over Esenyurt and Şişli, while the seven other districts passed to the AKP through city council votes or party switches by elected mayors or their replacements.
BirGün also listed seven other districts — Adalar, Ataşehir, Avcılar, Beşiktaş, Beylikdüzü, Beyoğlu and Büyükçekmece — where mayors were removed but councils elected CHP replacements. Their original winning candidates received a combined 579,418 votes in 2024.
This article is republished from Turkish Minute.
