Turkey detains 3 mayors in widening probe, Anadolu reports

Tugce Ozsoy, Bloomberg News on Jul 5, 2025

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Turkish police detained the mayors of three cities and a number of other officials, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported, in an escalation of a probe into municipalities governed by the opposition Republican People’s Party, or CHP.

Responding to the arrests, CHP leader Ozgur Ozel said Turkey had reached a “crossroads” in what he called “a struggle between democracy and autocracy” in the nation of over 85 million people.

Zeydan Karalar, Muhittin Bocek and Abdurrahman Tutdere — the mayors of Adana, Antalya and Adiyaman respectively — were taken into custody on Saturday, Anadolu reported. The raids were an extension of earlier investigations into alleged graft within CHP-led administrations, the agency said.

Antalya and Adana are among Turkey’s 10 biggest cities by population.

The crackdown started in March with the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, a prominent rival to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. His detention sparked mass protests and rattled financial markets.

Since then, it has broadened to include additional opposition officials as well as journalists, YouTubers, business associations, and other dissenting voices.

The sweeping detentions threaten to roll back the CHP’s historic victory over Erdogan’s ruling AK Party in local elections last year, when the opposition wrested control of almost all major cities, including Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir.

Opposition lawmakers say these cases are politically motivated, while Erdogan’s ruling AK Party says the judiciary operates independently.

“CHP eyes street protests instead of contributing to the country’s politics,” Sabah newspaper quoted Erdogan as saying on Friday. “Wait and be patient for the independent jurisdiction,” Erdogan said, adding that the CHP is “trying to distort the issues.”

Ozel said the CHP had been resisting the “malice” directed its way for 108 days.

“A thousand years of state practices and the entire opposition is under threat,” he said in a speech after his party’s extraordinary meeting on Saturday.

“Everyone will choose their place in history,” Ozel said, calling on “judicial officials, bureaucrats and politicians with conscience” to do the right thing. “You cannot question CHP municipalities with the questions you aren’t asking AK Party municipalities,” he added.

After Erdogan on Friday said the AK Party is still holding its lead in opinion polls, Ozel repeated a call for early elections and suggested a Nov. 2 ballot.