Forty mayors from Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) have been arrested since the March 2024 local elections, with criminal investigations leading to the suspension of elected officials and the appointment of government trustees to run some municipalities, the İlke TV news website reported on Wednesday.
The figure includes mayors who have since been released and does not represent the number currently in prison. The arrests have affected municipalities across Turkey, including İstanbul, Ankara, İzmir, Antalya, Adana and Mersin, with allegations ranging from corruption and bribery to links to terrorist organizations.
The latest arrests came on October 6, when courts ordered the pretrial detention of four CHP mayors, including Mersin Metropolitan Mayor Vahap Seçer, Yenişehir Mayor Abdullah Özyiğit and Mezitli Mayor Ahmet Serkan Tuncer, over alleged irregularities in municipal tenders and procurement.
İstanbul’s Eyüpsultan Mayor Mithat Bülent Özmen was also jailed pending trial that day on charges of bid-rigging, bribery and membership in a criminal organization. The four mayors were subsequently suspended from office.
A day earlier Ataşehir acting mayor Murat Güneş was arrested on bribery and organized crime allegations. Güneş had been elected acting mayor after the April arrest of Onursal Adıgüzel, the district’s elected mayor. Both men were suspended from office, and the city council was scheduled to select a new acting mayor on October 10.
The series of arrests began in October 2024 with Ahmet Özer, the mayor of İstanbul’s Esenyurt district, who was jailed on allegations of membership in the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), an armed group designated as a terrorist organization by Turkey and its Western allies.
Özer was removed from office and replaced by a government-appointed trustee, an unelected official authorized to administer the municipality. He was released in July 2025 after approximately eight months in pretrial detention and sentenced to more than six years in prison in January 2026.
The investigations expanded significantly in March 2025 with the detention and subsequent arrest of İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, one of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s most prominent political rivals, along with Şişli Mayor Resul Emrah Şahan and Beylikdüzü Mayor Mehmet Murat Çalık.
Other İstanbul district mayors subsequently arrested included Rıza Akpolat of Beşiktaş, Alaattin Köseler of Beykoz, Hakan Bahçetepe of Gaziosmanpaşa, Hasan Mutlu of Bayrampaşa and İnan Güney of Beyoğlu. Some have since been released, although they have not necessarily been reinstated.
The investigations also extended beyond İstanbul. Antalya Metropolitan Mayor Muhittin Böcek has been held in pretrial detention since July 2025, while Adana Metropolitan Mayor Zeydan Karalar, arrested the same month, was released in March 2026 but was not reinstated.
Other mayors arrested during the period include officials in Bursa, Bolu, Uşak, Düzce, Kocaeli, İzmir and Ankara.
The cases involve separate investigations into alleged bribery, bid-rigging, extortion, abuse of office, organized crime and terrorism-related offenses. The allegations have not resulted in convictions in every case, and an order for pretrial detention does not establish guilt.
The investigations have also affected the administration of municipalities won by the CHP in the March 31, 2024, local elections, when the party finished ahead of Erdoğan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) nationwide and won 14 of Turkey’s 30 metropolitan municipalities.
In Esenyurt and Şişli, the government appointed trustees after removing the elected mayors. In other municipalities, local councils selected replacements, with AKP candidates taking over the leadership of the Bursa Metropolitan Municipality and the Gaziosmanpaşa and Akçakoca district municipalities.
The political balance in İstanbul’s city council has also changed. The CHP’s representation fell from 187 seats after the 2024 elections to 154, while the bloc aligned with the ruling party increased its representation from 130 to 142.
Separately, defections from the CHP have further altered the distribution of municipal power. On October 7 İzmir Metropolitan Mayor Cemil Tugay joined Erdoğan’s AKP, giving the ruling party control of the mayor’s office in Turkey’s third-largest city and a longtime opposition stronghold. Aydın Metropolitan Mayor Özlem Çerçioğlu had previously made the same move.
Other mayors have joined the newly established New Party, formed after a court ruling in May removed the CHP’s leadership, further changing the political landscape since the local elections.
The CHP has accused the government of using the judiciary to undermine opposition-controlled municipalities and overturn the results of local elections. The government denies allegations of political interference, maintaining that the judiciary operates independently and that corruption and other criminal accusations must be investigated regardless of political affiliation.
The cases have raised concerns about local democratic representation because elected mayors can be removed from office before their criminal proceedings have concluded, with their duties transferred either to council-selected replacements or government-appointed trustees.
