Turkish authorities detained 47 people on Saturday, including senior officials from İstanbul’s opposition-run municipality as well as the brother-in-law of the city’s recently suspended mayor, Ekrem İmamoğlu, the main rival of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan who has been jailed for over a month, Turkish Minute reported.
Police conducted dawn operations across İstanbul, Ankara and Tekirdağ, targeting figures connected to the İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality, a key opposition stronghold since 2019.
The İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office said the detainees are suspected of forming and leading a criminal organization, rigging public tenders, bribery and aggravated fraud.
Among those detained are high-ranking city officials, including deputy secretaries-general, department heads, executives from city water utility İSKİ and Cevdet Kaya, the brother of İmamoğlu’s wife Dilek İmamoğlu.
Detention warrants were issued for 53 people, with operations focusing on senior staff closely linked to the suspended mayor’s administration.
İmamoğlu, through a statement shared on social media, condemned the operation as an attempt to “fill empty files with lies and slander,” accusing the government of turning the judiciary into a political weapon.
He described the detainees as “guardians of İstanbul” who fought against illegal construction and opposed the controversial Kanal İstanbul project, a planned artificial waterway connecting the Black and Marmara seas that many warn will have disastrous consequences for the environment.
İmamoğlu, whose 2019 and 2024 election victories dealt Erdoğan a rare political defeat, was detained on March 19 following a retroactive annulment of his university diploma.
The İstanbul municipality had served as a symbolic and strategic center of opposition power since İmamoğlu’s historic victory over Erdoğan’s ruling party.
His party, the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), garnered a plurality of the nationwide vote after 47 years in last year’s local elections.
İmamoğlu was formally nominated as the CHP’s presidential candidate on March 23, the same day as his arrest.
His arrest triggered the largest nationwide protests in Turkey since the 2013 Gezi Park movement, with security forces responding with tear gas and water cannons.
Some 2,000 people were detained nationwide in the protests, hundreds of whom were arrested and jailed before recently being released.
Detained protesters alleged mistreatment and abuse in police custody. They are now facing trial due to their acts of protest.
International observers and rights organizations warn that Turkey is accelerating its slide from competitive authoritarianism into outright dictatorship.
The Turkish government maintains that the judiciary is independent and that the arrests are based on credible allegations of financial crimes.
Critics argue that the crackdown on municipal officials, coupled with İmamoğlu’s prosecution, represents more than an effort to dismantle the political gains made by the opposition in major cities and is an attempt to eliminate a viable alternatives at the ballot box.
