The Besiktas City Hall, one of the most central districts of Istanbul and the richest in the city, woke up this Monday surrounded by the police, who urged their employees to identify themselves in order to access their jobs. A few hours earlier, at dawn, police officers had arrested its mayor, Riza Akpolat, of the center-left CHP party, whom the Prosecutor’s Office accuses of being involved in a corruption case. On Friday, the mayors of Akdeniz (one of the districts of the southern city of Mersin), from the pro-Kurdish DEM party, were also arrested by order of the Prosecutor’s Office on charges of terrorism. This Monday, in addition, the Ministry of the Interior instructed the prefect to intervene in the City Hall, which has been blocked and taken over by the police for days. The opposition accuses the Executive of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of twisting the law and resorting to these exceptional measures to break the local power of the opposition parties, in revenge for
In the case of Besiktas, the Istanbul Prosecutor’s Office has ordered the arrest of 47 people, whom it accuses of having formed a “criminal organization” that, through “bribes” to mayors and senior officials, ensured favorable treatment for their companies in municipal tenders. It is not the first time that a mayor of this district has been investigated for corruption ——, and the CHP leaders have not gone too far into discussing the accusations, but rather the way in which Akpolat has been arrested — in an effective early morning raid that recalls to anti-terrorist operations—making it clear that, if he had been called to testify, he would have done so without delay. “The objective is to generate the perception that he is guilty,” denounced the leader of the CHP, Özgür Özel, in a press conference, comparing the case with that of the former mayor of a party allied to Erdogan who was recently released on parole pending the appeal process. This despite having been sentenced in the first instance to 21 years in prison for his responsibility in the collapse of a building where 105 people died during
In the case of Akdeniz, the two co-mayors, Hosyar Sariyildiz and Nuriye Aslan, were arrested along with four other DEM councilors on charges of “propaganda” and “membership in a terrorist organization” as well as violation of the “prevention of financing” laws. of terrorism” and “demonstrations”. “The AKP Government [el partido islamista que dirige Erdogan] “It does not abandon its coup attitude against the popular will,” the DEM denounced in a statement. The candidates of this leftist pro-Kurdish party obtained 37% of the votes in Akdeniz compared to 30% for the AKP. In Besiktas, a stronghold of the CHP since 2004, the detained mayor had received 64% of the votes.
Last year’s municipal elections. They were the first elections that the AKP lost since its founding in 2001 and the first time that the CHP had won an election since 1977. The center-left party not only took over the five most populated cities in the country, but also took old strongholds from the AKP in interior and eastern Anatolia.
Since then, the Prosecutor’s Office has opened investigations against the Metropolitan Municipalities of Istanbul and Ankara – both led by CHP mayors who are considered possible candidates for the 2028 presidential elections – to evaluate whether their spending on events, festivals and concerts has been “excessive” and has caused “damage to the public treasury” (both institutions responded by publishing data according to which their AKP predecessors spent much more money organizing public events). Another investigation has been launched into the debts of the CHP municipalities to Social Security.
Likewise, the Government has threatened to close the Istanbul City Council’s daycare program, alleging that a municipal institution does not have powers in Education. This is one of the star projects of the one that has 650 public nursery schools at a price ten times lower than the private ones and has helped the reconciliation of thousands of working families (especially women, who usually bear the responsibility of raising children. children in Türkiye).
In addition, the Government has intervened in nine town councils (7 from the DEM and 2 from the CHP), which add up to about two million voters. Of these municipalities, three mayors have been sent to prison and another remains under house arrest, all of them due to terrorism accusations (three are from the DEM and one from the CHP). Since 2016, the Turkish Executive has intervened in more than 150 city councils—the vast majority of them run by Kurdish groups—despite criticism from opposition parties and jurists because these types of actions violate popular sovereignty and Turkish local legislation itself.
At this Monday’s press conference with the CHP leader, Imamoglu attributed the recent arrests to the AKP’s “anger” over its electoral defeat and the implementation of “an alternative municipal model.” He also harshly attacked Erdogan, whom he accused of manipulating the judiciary to attack his political adversaries (he himself faces several trials for which ). “In the Turkey that you lead, there is no trace of law or order,” he denounced: “But no matter what you do, we will continue on the side of the citizens, giving them good services and, in the first elections there are, they will unseat you from your office.” post”.
