3 mayors arrested in southern Turkey as part of crackdown on opposition

ISTANBUL (AP) – The mayors of three major cities in southern Turkey were arrested Saturday, state-run media reported, joining a growing list of opposition figures detained since the mayor of Istanbul was imprisoned in March.

Abdurrahman Tutdere, the mayor of Adiyaman, and Zeydan Karalar, who heads Adana municipality, were detained in early morning raids, according to Anadolu Agency. Both are members of the main opposition Republican People’s Party, or CHP.

The CHP mayor of Antalya, Muhittin Bocek, was arrested with two other suspects in a separate bribery investigation by the Antalya Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, Anadolu reported.

CHP officials have faced waves of arrests this year that many consider aimed at neutralizing Turkey’s main opposition party. The government insists prosecutors and the judiciary act independently but the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu led to the largest street protests Turkey has seen in more than a decade.

Karalar was arrested near Istanbul and Tutdere was arrested in the capital, Ankara, where he has a home. Tutdere posted on X that he was being taken to Istanbul. Police also carried out searches at the municipal offices in Adana and Adiyaman.

Eleven people, including Karalar and Tutdere, were arrested as part of an investigation by the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office into allegations involving organized crime, bribery and bid-rigging. In a statement, it said the evidence against Karalar and Tutdere had been supplied by a businessman who cooperated with prosecutors following his detention for running a criminal organization and paying bribes.

The mayors had “requested unfair financial benefits from company executives doing business with the municipality,” prosecutors added.

The mayors’ detentions follow the arrests of scores of officials from municipalities controlled by the CHP in recent months.

Following their arrests, CHP Chairman Ozgur Ozel convened a meeting of the party’s senior leadership. Meanwhile, the CHP mayor of Ankara questioned why municipalities controlled by President’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan’ s party were not subjected to the same level of judicial scrutiny as opposition politicians.

“In a system where the law is bent and twisted according to politics, where justice is applied to one group and ignored by another, no one should expect us to trust the rule of law or believe in justice,” Mansur Yavas posted on X.

Imamoglu, widely considered the main challenger to Erdogan ‘s 22-year rule, was jailed four months ago over corruption allegations. As part of the investigation into Imamoglu, the deputy mayor of Istanbul’s Buyukcekmece district was also arrested Saturday.

The former CHP mayor of Izmir, Turkey’s third-largest city, and 137 municipal officials were detained earlier this week as part of an investigation into alleged tender-rigging and fraud. On Friday, ex-Mayor Tunc Soyer and 59 others were jailed pending trial in what Soyer’s lawyer described as “a clearly unjust, unlawful and politically motivated decision.”

Also Friday, it was reported by state-run media that the CHP mayor of Manavgat, a Mediterranean resort city in Antalya province, and 34 others were detained over alleged corruption.

Imamoglu was officially nominated as his party’s presidential candidate following his imprisonment. Turkey’s next election is due in 2028, but could come sooner.

The crackdown comes a year after the CHP made significant gains in local elections. Adiyaman, which was severely affected by the 2023 earthquake, was among several cities previously considered strongholds for Erdogan to fall to the opposition.