Turkish police on Thursday detained an award-winning television actor who became an opposition mayor in an Ankara district as part of a corruption investigation, Turkish Minute reported.
Erdal Beşikçioğlu, best known for playing a homicide detective, is the latest member of the Republican People’s Party (CHP) to face criminal proceedings in what the opposition says is a politically motivated campaign.
The 56-year-old Beşikçioğlu was elected mayor of Etimesgut, a district of some 600,000 people in western Ankara, in 2024.
He achieved national fame portraying a detective fighting corruption and political interference in the acclaimed television series “Behzat Ç.”
The Ankara West Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office issued detention warrants for 55 suspects, including Beşikçioğlu, in simultaneous raids centered in Ankara and conducted across nine provinces.
Police had detained 52 of the suspects by Thursday morning, according to media reports.
The suspects comprise 42 municipal officials, including three deputy mayors, and 13 representatives of companies that did business with the municipality.
They face allegations including establishing, managing or belonging to a criminal organization, embezzlement, bribery, extortion, bid-rigging and abuse of public office.
Prosecutors are investigating alleged irregularities and forged documents in municipal tenders as well as the alleged provision of improper benefits through parking-lot leases and zoning and construction permits.
Police searched 56 homes and 15 workplaces and carried out search and seizure procedures involving 41 vehicles.
The accusations are similar to those brought against İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, who has been jailed since March 2025, and dozens of other CHP mayors and officials targeted in corruption investigations.
İmamoğlu, widely seen as President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s strongest political rival, and the CHP say the investigations are part of a government campaign to weaken the opposition and reverse its gains in the 2024 local elections.
The government rejects accusations of political interference and claims Turkey’s courts operate independently.
Police on Wednesday also detained Sinem Dedetaş, the CHP mayor of İstanbul’s Üsküdar district, and five other people over alleged bribery, extortion and irregularities in building permit and occupancy procedures.
Dedetaş was still in police custody on Thursday.
The investigations have targeted dozens of CHP-run municipalities since the party defeated Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) in the nationwide popular vote in the March 2024 local elections.
Özgür Özel, who was removed as CHP chairman by a court in May, resigned from the party last week and established the New Party with 90 other lawmakers.
The defections gave the New Party 91 seats in parliament, making it the largest opposition group, while reducing the CHP’s representation to 44 lawmakers.
