A new report by Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) has revealed the extent of a government crackdown on the party, marking one year since the campaign began in October 2024, Turkish Minute reported.
The report documents mass arrests, politically motivated prosecutions and the seizure of CHP-run municipalities through trustee appointments following the CHP’s sweeping 2024 local election victory.
The 42-page report, titled,“Sandığa Karşı Yargı: Bir Darbenin Anatomisi” (Judiciary Against the Ballot Box: The Anatomy of a Coup) describes what the CHP calls a “judicial coup” against local democracy that unfolded after the arrest of Ahmet Özer, mayor of the Esenyurt district in İstanbul, on October 30, 2024. Özer is still in pretrial detention on terrorism charges.
Özer’s arrest came seven months after the March 2024 elections, when the CHP again won İstanbul, Ankara and other major cities and secured the largest share of the national vote for the first time in decades.
According to the report, 16 CHP mayors are currently jailed, and trustees have been appointed to 13 municipalities, including İstanbul’s Esenyurt and Şişli districts. The arrests intensified after İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, the CHP’s 2028 presidential candidate and widely seen as President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s main political rival, was detained and subsequently arrested in March.
“The AKP is trying to defeat the CHP in the courts because it cannot beat us at the ballot box,” said Gül Çiftci, CHP deputy chair for elections and party law, who presented the report.
“This report serves as a summary of the past year in that context. It is our duty to protect the people’s mandate, the will that emerged from the ballot box.”
Over 160 arrested in 9 operations targeting İstanbul Municipality
The report details a series of operations against CHP-run municipalities, focusing on the İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality. Between March and August 2025, prosecutors conducted nine successive operations against the municipality and its subsidiaries, issuing more than 300 detention orders and making at least 165 arrests.
Prosecutors accused municipal employees of corruption, bid-rigging, data manipulation and aiding a terrorist organization.
The CHP said many allegations were revived from previously audited files based on secret witness statements and vague anonymous tips rather than concrete evidence.
The party argued that the timing of the operations was aimed at intimidating voters and dismantling opposition municipalities after its strong performance in the 2024 local elections.
The CHP said the crackdown violates constitutional guarantees of local autonomy and the presumption of innocence, noting that several removals and trustee appointments occurred without court rulings. Interviews with detainees indicated that some law enforcement and courthouse personnel offered release in exchange for confessions or testimony against mayors and senior officials, the report added.
The party also accused the pro-government media of shaping public opinion by publishing prejudiced coverage of ongoing investigations and leaking confidential case details to create narratives portraying CHP officials as guilty before trial.
Party challenges indictment against municipal officials
The report includes the CHP’s response to a 578-page indictment made public on October 20 against Aziz İhsan Aktaş, a businessman accused of leading an alleged criminal organization, and also accusing several CHP-run municipalities of bribery, bid-rigging and money laundering.
The party said the indictment omits the 2014–2019 period when the municipality was run by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), relies on inconsistent witness statements and lacks solid evidence, even treating routine social services as criminal acts.
İmamoğlu cases seen as ‘most visible example of political pressure’
The report devotes a section to the legal cases against İmamoğlu, calling them “the most visible examples of political pressure on the opposition.” It shows how investigations and court cases against him have multiplied since his 2019 election victory, which ended Erdoğan’s years-long control over İstanbul.
İmamoğlu won the elections in İstanbul twice in 2019, when the first election result was contested by Erdoğan’s party on the grounds that there were irregularities. He was re-elected in the local polls last year in a development that dashed Erdoğan’s hopes to take back the city from the opposition.
According to the CHP, nearly every case brought against İmamoğlu — from an “insult” charge over a misinterpreted remark to allegations of bid-rigging, bribery and even espionage — stems from politically motivated claims lacking a solid legal basis.
İmamoğlu faces multiple investigations and was sentenced to more than two years in prison and barred from politics in December 2022 for allegedly insulting members of Turkey’s Supreme Election Board (YSK). He was also convicted in July of insulting and threatening a public prosecutor involved in the crackdown on his party.
Under Turkish law, if the sentences are upheld by an appeals court, İmamoğlu will be banned from holding public office.
The report refers to March 23 as a turning point, when İmamoğlu was arrested the same day he was nominated as the CHP’s presidential candidate with 15.5 million votes in a nationwide primary. It described the arrest as a “direct intervention in the people’s will,” noting that more than seven months later, prosecutors have yet to file an indictment.
His detention on March 19 led to widespread protests unseen in Turkey since the anti-government protests of 2013.
‘Systematic effort to undermine local democracy’
The CHP said the government’s actions against opposition-led municipalities are part of a broader, systematic strategy to undermine local democracy and the rule of law. The removal of elected mayors without valid legal grounds and the appointment of trustees have, the report said, eroded public confidence in both justice and elections.
The party vowed to continue its struggle “both legally and politically” against what it calls the use of the judiciary as a political weapon. It said it will raise the issue before national and international bodies, including the Constitutional Court, the Union of Turkish Bar Associations and the Council of Europe, while keeping the public informed through press briefings and reports.
The CHP urged citizens who believe in democracy to speak out against “fabricated investigations and those who use the judiciary as a tool to prolong their political survival,” adding that defending the rule of law is synonymous with defending the country’s future.
Erdoğan and his party claim the operations against the CHP are in line with the law and deny claims that they are politically motivated.
