ISTANBUL — The mayors of two main cities in southern Turkey had been arrested Saturday, state-run media reported, becoming a member of a rising listing of opposition figures detained because the mayor of Istanbul was imprisoned in March.
Abdurrahman Tutdere, the mayor of Adiyaman, and Zeydan Karalar, who heads Adana municipality, had been detained in early morning raids, in accordance with Anadolu Company. Each are members of the primary opposition Republican Folks’s Celebration, or CHP.
Karalar was arrested in Istanbul and Tutdere was arrested within the capital, Ankara, the place he has a house. Tutdere posted on X that he was being taken to Istanbul.
In whole, 10 individuals had been arrested as a part of an investigation by the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Workplace into allegations involving organized crime, bribery and bid-rigging.
Particulars of the costs in opposition to them weren’t instantly launched by prosecutors however the operation follows the arrests of scores of officers from municipalities managed by the CHP in current months.
Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, extensively thought-about the primary challenger to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ’s 22-year rule, was jailed 4 months in the past over corruption allegations.
The previous CHP mayor of Izmir, Turkey’s third-largest metropolis, and 137 municipal officers had been detained earlier this week as a part of an investigation into alleged tender-rigging and fraud. On Friday, ex-mayor Tunc Soyer and 59 others had been jailed pending trial in what Soyer’s lawyer described as “a clearly unjust, illegal and politically motivated determination.”
Additionally Friday, it was reported by state-run media that the CHP mayor of Manavgat, a Mediterranean resort metropolis in Antalya province, and 34 others had been detained over alleged corruption.
CHP officers have confronted waves of arrests this yr that many contemplate aimed toward neutralizing Turkey’s essential opposition occasion. The federal government insists prosecutors and the judiciary act independently however the arrest of Istanbul’s Imamoglu led to the largest street protests Turkey has seen in additional than a decade.
Imamoglu was formally nominated as his occasion’s presidential candidate following his imprisonment. Turkey’s subsequent election is due in 2028 however may come sooner.
The crackdown comes a yr after the CHP made vital features in native elections. Adiyaman, which was severely affected by the 2023 earthquake, was amongst a number of cities beforehand thought-about strongholds for Erdogan to fall to the opposition.