On the charge of corruption, and was taken into custody today, the person in charge of the largest party of the Turkish parliamentary opposition, after the period of his temporary detention was completed, Turkish media report.
Umit Erkol, chairman of the Ankara Provincial Organization of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), had been detained along with eight other people as part of an investigation by the Izmir prosecutor’s office into alleged irregularities in a contract between that city’s municipality and a cooperative construction company, Izbeton, news websites T24 and Birgün explained.
According to the prosecutor of Izmir, cited by these media, the investigation concerns “accusations of embezzlement of funds, serious fraud, falsification of official documents and failure to supervise”.
Mansur Yavas, the mayor of Ankara who belongs to the CHP, denounced this arrest, underlining in a message to X that Erkol is “a well-known figure, with a clear direction and a specific public role”, adding that “there is no risk of him escaping, no possibility of falsifying evidence”.
“When an arrest warrant is issued in these circumstances, then we cannot talk about justice,” he insisted.
The Turkish opposition is under pressure following the March 2025 arrest and pretrial detention of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, who has been on trial since March 9 for corruption, along with 413 co-accused.
Imamoglu, whom the CHP has named as its candidate in presidential elections scheduled for May 2028, was seen as the favorite and the only one capable of defeating President Tayyip Erdogan, who has been in power since 2003 and is up for re-election in 2023.
Four CHP mayors, including that of Bursa (northwest Turkey), the country’s fourth-largest city won by the opposition in 2024, have been arrested since the trial began.
