Turkish police on Monday detained a district mayor and dozens of others in a corruption investigation in the western province of İzmir, in the latest operation targeting municipalities run by the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), Turkish Minute reported.
Buca Mayor Görkem Duman and former mayor Erhan Kılıç were among 53 people detained in raids launched early Monday as part of an investigation overseen by the İzmir Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office.
Prosecutors issued detention warrants for a total of 62 people, including municipal officials, employees of municipal subsidiaries, contractors, architects and businesspeople.
Police also searched Duman’s house after taking him into custody, according to Turkish media.
According to a statement from the prosecutor’s office, the suspects are accused of “establishing a criminal organization,” “bribery” and “zoning irregularities.”
The investigation concerns allegations that a criminal organization was established and run using the municipality’s means and authority, that bribes were exchanged between contractors and municipal officials in connection with construction activities in the district and that irregularities were committed in zoning procedures, with municipal officials playing an active role in the process.
The allegations also include the use of credit cards, bank accounts and vehicles belonging to municipal subsidiaries for personal expenses and accommodation, payments to people who did not actually work for the municipality and assaults on some people who reported on or posted about the municipality on social media.
Those targeted in the investigation include the current and former mayors, former CHP Buca district chairman Çağdaş Kaya, deputy mayors, municipal directors, technical staff involved in zoning and licensing procedures, employees of municipal subsidiaries, architects, contractors and businesspeople.
Some suspects were already jailed in connection with other proceedings, while several others were listed as fugitives, including some who were reported to be abroad.
The operation comes less than a week after another CHP mayor in İzmir was arrested and removed from office in a separate investigation into alleged corruption and zoning violations.
Mustafa Günay, the CHP mayor of İzmir’s Güzelbahçe district, was arrested on May 26 along with the municipality’s zoning and urban planning director, Özgür Bayraktar. The Interior Ministry removed Günay from office on May 28 as a temporary measure following his arrest.
Günay is accused of establishing a criminal organization for the purpose of committing crimes, bribery, abuse of office, violations of zoning and coastal laws and falsifying official documents.
Duman and Günay were known to be supporters of Özgür Özel, who was removed as CHP chairman after a court annulled the party’s 2023 congress and reinstated former chairman Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu and his team.
The new operation in Buca adds to growing pressure on CHP-run municipalities following the party’s sweeping victory over President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in the March 2024 local elections.
Rights groups and opposition politicians say the judiciary has been used to weaken the CHP through criminal investigations, detentions, arrests and removals of elected mayors, while the government insists the courts act independently.
The pressure on the party has intensified since the arrest of İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, widely seen as Erdoğan’s strongest political rival, in March 2025 on corruption charges he denies.
The CHP says investigations targeting its municipalities are politically motivated and aimed at rolling back the opposition’s local election gains.
The May 21 ruling that overturned the CHP leadership elected at the 2023 congress drew criticism from rights groups and opposition figures, who said it marked a serious escalation in pressure on Turkey’s largest opposition party.
