Turkish authorities have detained a former mayor and seven others in a corruption investigation, marking the latest in a series of operations targeting local officials from Turkey’s main opposition party, Turkish Minute reported.
Çetin Bozkurt, the former mayor of Devrek, located in Turkey’s northwestern Zonguldak province, and a member of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), was taken into custody on Friday along with former municipal staff and contractors as part of a probe into alleged financial misconduct, CHP lawmaker Deniz Yavuzyılmaz announced on X.
The detentions bring to at least 26 the number of people held this week in police raids targeting CHP-run municipalities, with eight suspects arrested so far.
Bozkurt, who ran the municipality of Devrek until the March 2024 local elections, was detained following an investigation by the Interior Ministry and the Zonguldak Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, who were looking into alleged public procurement irregularities and embezzlement during his time in office.
Yavuzyılmaz condemned the detentions as politically motivated, accusing the government of weaponizing the judiciary against political opponents.
This week’s operations targeting CHP-run cities have seen deputy mayors in İstanbul’s Beşiktaş and Beykoz districts arrested over charges of bid-rigging and bribery as well as city officials in the Kemalpaşa district of İzmir charged with fraudulent spending tied to a canceled public concert.
In İstanbul’s Beykoz district, Deputy Mayor Fidan Gül was arrested on Wednesday as part of an expanding investigation into irregularities in municipal procurement contracts. Gül had been named in earlier phases of the case, which in February led to the arrest of Mayor Alaattin Köseler and 12 others. Prosecutors accuse the suspects of bid rigging and forming a criminal organization.
Similarly, in Beşiktaş — another İstanbul district under CHP control — Deputy Mayor Ali Rıza Yılmaz was among five people arrested Thursday in connection with alleged corruption in public tenders. Twelve suspects had been detained earlier in the week. Beşiktaş was first targeted in January, when Mayor Rıza Akpolat was arrested in a separate but related case. This week’s detentions are part of a deepening probe by İstanbul prosecutors into what they describe as “institutionalized procurement fraud” in municipal bodies.
In İzmir’s Kemalpaşa district, police detained five individuals on April 17, including the deputy mayor, over alleged misuse of public funds allocated to a concert of Turkish singer Gülşen that was later canceled. While two suspects, including the municipality’s former culture director, were formally arrested, the deputy mayor was released under judicial supervision. Prosecutors allege that concert payments were processed despite the event being called off, causing financial loss to the municipality.
The detentions came in a week of rumors of a possible court-ordered takeover of the CHP amid intensifying pressure on the party since last year that culminated with the arrest of İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu last month on corruption charges.
A central figure in the opposition, İmamoğlu rose to prominence after his landmark victory in the 2019 İstanbul mayoral election and was re-elected in 2024. His arrest took place on the same day his party nominated him as its candidate for the next presidential election scheduled for 2028. İmamoğlu is seen as President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s strongest political rival.
His detention on March 19 sparked the largest protests in Turkey since the anti-government Gezi Park demonstrations in 2013. Many critics view the charges as politically motivated.
The Turkish government maintains that the operations are part of a broader crackdown on corruption and the misuse of public funds.
In the local elections of March 2024, CHP candidates retained control of key cities including İstanbul, Ankara and İzmir, and won several metropolitan cities previously ruled by President Erdoğan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in a major blow to Turkey’s strongman.
The CHP emerged as the leading party for the first time in 47 years, securing 37.7 percent of the vote, while the AKP garnered only 35.4 percent.
The CHP’s election victory led to concerns that Erdoğan might resort to measures designed to hinder the operations of opposition municipalities or discredit them in the eyes of the public in retaliation for his party’s election loss.
In total, at least four CHP mayors and dozens of municipal officials have been jailed since October. The Interior Ministry has launched investigations or audits into more than 20 CHP-run municipalities.
