Bank receipts obtained by the Karar daily have revealed that Turkey’s presidency transferred TL 45 million ($1.3 million) to each of the 24 İstanbul municipalities run by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) before local elections in March, Turkish Minute reported on Thursday.
According to the bank documents, the Presidency of Strategy and Budget made the funds transfers to 24 AKP-run municipalities in İstanbul as “donations” in January and February.
It was İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, from the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), who first brought the controversial funds transfers to public attention earlier this month in the wake of threats from Erdoğan targeting opposition-run municipalities due to their municipal debt.
The İstanbul mayor said in addition to the CHP municipalities, the Silivri Municipality in İstanbul run by the AKP’s political ally, the far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), received no funds from the presidency.
İmamoğlu complained that while CHP-run municipalities are made to wait for long periods of time to get approval from the presidency for projects, AKP-run municipalities enjoy donations from the presidency.
The transfer of huge amounts of money to AKP municipalities ahead of the local elections in an apparent attempt to fund their election campaigns has been linked to Erdoğan’s ambition to retake the country’s economic capital from the opposition, which it lost in 2019.
Erdoğan put special importance on winning İstanbul because his path to becoming president began in İstanbul, where he was elected mayor in 1994. His allies held the city until İmamoğlu took control.
As soon as he won re-election as president in May 2023, Erdoğan launched the campaign to recapture the city of 16 million.
The Turkish president appointed former environment minister Murat Kurum as his candidate for mayor and entrusted him with reclaiming İstanbul and consolidating his power. Kurum was defeated by İmamoğlu by a large margin, getting only 39 percent of the vote to İmamoğlu’s 51 percent.
He was later appointed environment minister.
Many observers believe that İmamoğlu’s re-election has strengthened his position ahead of the next presidential election in 2028, in which he is expected to run.
