{"id":38094,"date":"2026-03-11T20:53:22","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T20:53:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/38094\/"},"modified":"2026-03-11T20:53:22","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T20:53:22","slug":"police-raid-another-main-opposition-run-municipality-in-southern-turkey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/38094\/","title":{"rendered":"Police raid another main opposition-run municipality in southern Turkey"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Turkish police on Wednesday raided city hall in the opposition-run Mersin Metropolitan Municipality in southern Turkey as part of a corruption investigation, a move that comes amid growing pressure by the government on municipalities controlled by the country\u2019s main opposition party, Turkish media reported.<\/p>\n

Officers from the provincial police department\u2019s organized crime unit searched city hall early in the morning as part of a probe into allegations of bribery and bid rigging in public tenders, the Mersin Chief Public Prosecutor\u2019s Office said.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors said several suspects, including municipal employees, were detained in the operation. They seized three vehicles and a boat believed to belong to suspects linked to the investigation.<\/p>\n

Police also searched the home and office of the municipality\u2019s chief of staff, Mersin Mayor Vahap Se\u00e7er said.<\/p>\n

Se\u00e7er, a member of the main opposition Republican People\u2019s Party (CHP), said the investigation relates to municipal procurement procedures and that no inquiry had been opened against him personally.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis investigation is not a surprise to me,\u201d Se\u00e7er said.<\/p>\n

The probe comes as tensions have grown between the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdo\u011fan and municipalities controlled by the CHP, which governs several of Turkey\u2019s largest cities after making major gains in local elections in 2024.<\/p>\n

The most significant judicial action targeting the CHP came with \u0130stanbul Mayor Ekrem \u0130mamo\u011flu\u2019s\u00a0arrest<\/a>\u00a0on March 23. The CHP\u2019s 2028 presidential candidate and President Erdo\u011fan\u2019s strongest political rival, \u0130mamo\u011flu was charged with \u201cfounding and leading a criminal organization\u201d and\u00a0faced<\/a>\u00a0cumulative prison sentences of up to 2,430 years. Authorities\u00a0blocked<\/a>\u00a0his outside communication,\u00a0seized<\/a>\u00a0businesses linked to his family and\u00a0arrested<\/a>\u00a0his lawyer.<\/p>\n

The crackdown has extended beyond \u0130stanbul to other CHP-run municipalities including\u00a0Ankara<\/a>,\u00a0\u0130zmir<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Antalya<\/a>, with hundreds detained or arrested.<\/p>\n

The party\u2019s leadership has also faced legal challenges, including a court case seeking to\u00a0annul<\/a>\u00a0its national congress and the\u00a0appointment<\/a>\u00a0of a government trustee to the party\u2019s \u0130stanbul branch. Several mayors have defected to the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), a move\u00a0attributed<\/a>\u00a0to sustained political pressure.<\/p>\n

Protests against the crackdown were violently dispersed. Human rights groups described some instances as \u201camounting to torture.\u201d Journalists covering the demonstrations were\u00a0detained<\/a>, while opposition media faced\u00a0threats<\/a>,\u00a0access restrictions<\/a>\u00a0and administrative fines.\u00a0International organizations<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0human rights groups<\/a>\u00a0expressed concerns about politically motivated prosecutions and broader human rights violations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Turkish police on Wednesday raided city hall in the opposition-run Mersin Metropolitan Municipality in southern Turkey as part…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":38095,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[83],"tags":[422,423,425,426,312,427,428,21791,429,430,431,131,132,155],"class_list":{"0":"post-38094","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-stockholm","8":"tag-ak-party","9":"tag-akp","10":"tag-democracy","11":"tag-erdogan","12":"tag-human-rights","13":"tag-justice","14":"tag-law","15":"tag-mersin-metropolitan-municipality","16":"tag-oppression","17":"tag-republican-peoples-party-chp","18":"tag-rule-of-law","19":"tag-stockholm","20":"tag-sweden","21":"tag-turkey"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@dk\/116212531520378103","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38094","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=38094"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38094\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}