Turkish authorities arrested the mayor of Şile, a seaside district on the northern outskirts of Istanbul, along with four other municipal officials early Monday as part of a crackdown on the opposition, the BirGün daily reported.
The arrests follow a July 10 dawn raid targeting the Şile Municipality, in which six people were taken into police custody, including Mayor Özgür Kabadayı, a member of the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP).
The investigation, led by the Terrorism and Organized Crime Bureau of the Anadolu Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, involves allegations of forming a criminal organization, extortion, bribery and rigging public tenders.
The six detainees were taken for medical evaluations before being brought to the Anadolu Courthouse in İstanbul, where they provided formal statements. Prosecutors then referred Kabadayı and four other municipal officials to the Criminal Court of Peace with a request for their arrest.
The judge ruled on the matter at approximately 2:20 a.m. on Monday, July 14. One suspect, Aslı Kotan, was released under judicial supervision, which typically includes a travel ban and routine check-ins with the authorities.
CHP Deputy Chairman Ulaş Karasu criticized the operation in a social media post, saying: “Dawn raids have become routine under the one-man regime [of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan]. This morning, our Şile Mayor Özgür Kabadayı and his colleagues were taken into custody. Those who cannot accept defeat at the ballot box are trying to discredit our municipalities. In this climate of manufactured perceptions, the law has become a tool for revenge. In the next election, they will be swept away along with this corrupt system they’ve built.”
CHP’s Istanbul provincial chairman, Özgür Çelik, also voiced concern in a statement he made outside the Anadolu Courthouse on Sunday evening. “Our expectation is that Özgür Kabadayı will be released and will return to his duties,” Çelik said. “There is no concrete evidence against our mayor.”
Monday’s arrests follow the March arrest of İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, the CHP’s presumptive 2028 presidential candidate, who was jailed on corruption-related charges widely seen as politically driven. His detention and subsequent arrest sparked mass protests across Turkey, the country’s largest wave of civil unrest since the 2013 Gezi Park protests.
Since then, the CHP has organized weekly “Defending the National Will” rallies in various cities. The latest was held in İstanbul last week.
Rights groups have long accused Ankara of using judicial measures to stifle political dissent and undermine elected opposition officials.
A trial date for Kabadayı and his co-defendants has not yet been set.
