A mayor and a senior official from the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) have been detained in separate investigations based in the western province of İzmir as part of an ongoing crackdown on the party, Turkish Minute reported, citing the Anka news agency.
Ömer Eşki, the CHP mayor of İzmir’s Bornova district, was taken into custody on fraud-related accusations as part of an investigation into alleged irregular employment practices at the municipality, the İzmir Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office said.
Prosecutors said the probe was launched over allegations that an individual identified as A.A. had been registered as a call center employee but did not actually perform any duties, a practice commonly referred to as employing “ghost workers.”
The prosecutor’s office said Eşki and three others, the employee in question as well as municipal officials responsible for human resources and public relations, were detained on accusations of fraud and forgery of official documents.
Eşki was elected mayor in March 2024 local elections with 49.6 percent of the vote.
In a separate development, CHP Ankara provincial chair Ümit Erkol was detained in the capital as part of an İzmir-based investigation known as the “cooperative case,” according to Turkish media reports. He was later transferred to İzmir by the financial crimes police.
The probe concerns allegations of corruption involving subcontractors at İZBETON, a company affiliated with the İzmir Metropolitan Municipality. Former İzmir mayor Tunç Soyer, who is jailed in another case, former provincial party chair Şenol Aslanoğlu and former İZBETON general manager Heval Savaş Kaya are among those on trial in the case.
Erkol’s son, Fırat Erkol, was previously detained in the same investigation in July 2025 and is currently standing trial without being held in pretrial detention.
The case, which involves 65 defendants, is being heard by the İzmir 23rd High Criminal Court, with its fifth hearing held on March 26.
The latest detentions come amid increasing legal pressure on CHP officials and municipalities following the party’s strong showing in the March 2024 local elections.
Since then, opposition-held municipalities have faced mounting legal and administrative pressure. A statement by municipal workers union Tüm Bel Sen said 85 municipalities have changed hands through trustee appointments, removals, arrests and shifts in city council control, affecting more than 8.8 million votes.
Recent cases have reinforced that trend. In the western province of Bursa, Mayor Mustafa Bozbey was arrested last week in a corruption probe involving dozens of suspects, while Uşak Mayor Özkan Yalım was jailed in a separate bribery investigation days earlier.
The CHP says such investigations are part of a broader campaign to undermine opposition-run municipalities, while government officials deny the claims, saying the probes are based on evidence of criminal wrongdoing.
The most prominent case is that of İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, a leading opposition figure and potential presidential challenger to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan whose arrest last year deepened concern over pressure on elected opposition officials.
