Turkish police on Tuesday detained a mayor from the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) and 14 other people in the western province of İzmir as part of a corruption investigation, TRT Haber reported.
Menderes Mayor İlkay Çiçek was taken into custody during simultaneous early-morning raids carried out under the coordination of the İzmir Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office.
Prosecutors identified 16 suspects in the investigation. Fifteen had been detained by late Tuesday morning, while police were searching for the remaining suspect. Officers also searched Çiçek’s home, the municipal building and several other locations.
The suspects face allegations of establishing or joining a criminal organization, bribery, extortion by a public official, forgery of official documents, abuse of office and causing illegal construction. Those detained reportedly include municipal officials, city council members and people who had dealings with the municipality.
The operation is the latest in a series of criminal investigations involving CHP-run municipalities in İzmir.
Three CHP district mayors in the province — Seferihisar Mayor İsmail Yetişkin, Buca Mayor Görkem Duman and Güzelbahçe Mayor Mustafa Günay — are currently in pretrial detention in separate investigations. Yetişkin, Duman and Günay were also temporarily suspended from office following their arrests.
Former İzmir metropolitan mayor Tunç Soyer is also in prison in connection with a separate investigation involving municipal cooperatives. Although a court ordered his release in one case, he remained jailed under a detention order issued in another investigation.
İzmir’s current metropolitan mayor, Cemil Tugay, resigned from the CHP in June and has continued in office as an independent. Reports that he could join President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) have circulated in recent weeks, but Tugay has denied having any such plans or having talks with the party.
The CHP says the investigations targeting its municipalities are politically motivated and intended to weaken the opposition, while the government claims that prosecutors and courts act independently.
This article is republished from Turkish Minute.
