{"id":25655,"date":"2026-02-26T18:35:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T18:35:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/25655\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T18:35:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T18:35:08","slug":"turkish-court-acquits-mayor-months-after-defection-to-ruling-akp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/25655\/","title":{"rendered":"Turkish court acquits mayor months after defection to ruling AKP"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>            <a href=\"https:\/\/stockholmcf.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Ozlem-Cercioglu.jpg\" data-caption=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"696\" height=\"438\" class=\"entry-thumb td-modal-image\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=\" http:=\"\" data-lazy- data-lazy- alt=\"\" title=\"O\u0308zlem C\u0327erc\u0327iog\u0306lu\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Ozlem-Cercioglu-696x438.jpg\"\/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"696\" height=\"438\" class=\"entry-thumb td-modal-image\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Ozlem-Cercioglu-696x438.jpg\"   alt=\"\" title=\"O\u0308zlem C\u0327erc\u0327iog\u0306lu\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>A Turkish court on Wednesday acquitted Ayd\u0131n Mayor \u00d6zlem \u00c7er\u00e7io\u011flu of bid-rigging charges, six months after she defected from the main opposition to the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) amid increasing pressure on opposition mayors.<\/p>\n<p>According to the Birg\u00fcn daily, the Ayd\u0131n 4th Criminal Court of First Instance <a href=\"https:\/\/www.birgun.net\/haber\/akp-ye-gecen-ozlem-cercioglu-ihaleye-fesat-karistirma-davasinda-beraat-etti-695762\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">acquitted<\/a> \u00c7er\u00e7io\u011flu and several co-defendants, while sentencing seven of the 32 people tried in the case to prison.<\/p>\n<p>\u00c7er\u00e7io\u011flu had been a member of the main opposition Republican People\u2019s Party (CHP) for 23 years before joining the AKP on August 4, 2025, along with eight other former opposition mayors during an event marking the party\u2019s 24th anniversary.<\/p>\n<p>Prosecutors had sought a six-year prison sentence and a ban from public office for \u00c7er\u00e7io\u011flu on charges of \u201crepeated bid rigging\u201d and \u201crepeated misuse of public office\u201d in connection with municipal tenders conducted between 2013 and 2015.<\/p>\n<p>Her acquittal came after CHP leader \u00d6zg\u00fcr \u00d6zel alleged last month that \u00c7er\u00e7io\u011flu had been pressured to switch parties, claiming she was told, \u201cYou will either go to Silivri [prison] or join the AKP.\u201d \u00c7er\u00e7io\u011flu denied the allegation and <a href=\"https:\/\/tr.euronews.com\/2026\/01\/30\/ak-partiye-gecen-ozlem-cercioglu-chp-lideri-ozgur-ozel-hakkinda-suc-duyurusunda-bulundu\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">filed<\/a> a criminal complaint over \u00d6zel\u2019s remarks.<\/p>\n<p>CHP officials <a href=\"https:\/\/stockholmcf.org\/defect-or-be-jailed-opposition-mayors-face-new-threat-in-turkey\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">accuse<\/a> prosecutors of building cases on coerced testimony and say mayors often defect out of fear of imprisonment. Analysts say the wave of defections <a href=\"https:\/\/stockholmcf.org\/7-opposition-mayors-switch-to-erdogans-ruling-party-amid-pressure-campaign\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">reflects<\/a> a coordinated strategy to consolidate AKP control over municipalities captured by the opposition in the March 2024 local elections, in which the CHP defeated the AKP in most major cities.<\/p>\n<p>Since the elections, nearly 60 opposition mayors have defected to the AKP, while 18 CHP mayors have been arrested on corruption or terrorism-related charges. Among them was \u0130stanbul Mayor Ekrem \u0130mamo\u011flu, the CHP\u2019s presidential candidate and President Recep Tayyip Erdo\u011fan\u2019s strongest rival.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Turkish court on Wednesday acquitted Ayd\u0131n Mayor \u00d6zlem \u00c7er\u00e7io\u011flu of bid-rigging charges, six months after she defected&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25656,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[83],"tags":[16706,6872,2031,8828,429,16707,430,16708,131,132,155],"class_list":{"0":"post-25655","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-stockholm","8":"tag-arrested-opposition-mayors","9":"tag-aydin","10":"tag-crackdown-on-opposition","11":"tag-justice-and-development-party-akp","12":"tag-oppression","13":"tag-ozlem-cercioglu","14":"tag-republican-peoples-party-chp","15":"tag-silivri-prison","16":"tag-stockholm","17":"tag-sweden","18":"tag-turkey"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25655"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25655\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}