{"id":40692,"date":"2025-07-05T12:00:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-05T12:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/40692\/"},"modified":"2025-07-05T12:00:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-05T12:00:09","slug":"3-mayors-arrested-in-southern-turkey-as-part-of-crackdown-on-opposition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/40692\/","title":{"rendered":"3 mayors arrested in southern Turkey as part of crackdown on opposition"},"content":{"rendered":"

ISTANBUL (AP) \u2014 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<\/a> in March.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s Party, or CHP.<\/p>\n

The CHP mayor of Antalya, Muhittin Bocek, was arrested with two other suspects in a separate bribery investigation by the Antalya Chief Public Prosecutor\u2019s Office, Anadolu reported.<\/p>\n

CHP officials have faced waves of arrests<\/a> this year that many consider aimed at neutralizing Turkey\u2019s 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<\/a> Turkey has seen in more than a decade.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Ten people, including Karalar and Tutdere, were arrested as part of an investigation by the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

The mayors had \u201crequested unfair financial benefits from company executives doing business with the municipality,\u201d prosecutors added.<\/p>\n

The mayors\u2019 detentions follow the arrests of scores of officials from municipalities controlled by the CHP in recent months.<\/p>\n

Following their arrests, CHP Chairman Ozgur Ozel convened a meeting of the party\u2019s senior leadership. Meanwhile, the CHP mayor of Ankara questioned why municipalities controlled by President\u2019s Recep Tayyip Erdogan\u2019<\/a> s party were not subjected to the same level of judicial scrutiny as opposition politicians.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 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,\u201d Mansur Yavas posted on X.<\/p>\n

A wave of arrests targeting the opposition <\/p>\n

Imamoglu, widely considered the main challenger to Erdogan<\/a> \u2019s 22-year rule, was jailed four months ago over corruption allegations.<\/p>\n

The former CHP mayor of Izmir, Turkey\u2019s third-largest city, and 137 municipal officials were detained earlier this week<\/a> 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\u2019s lawyer described as \u201ca clearly unjust, unlawful and politically motivated decision.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Imamoglu was officially nominated as his party\u2019s presidential candidate following his imprisonment. Turkey\u2019s next election is due in 2028, but could come sooner.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ISTANBUL (AP) \u2014 The mayors of three major cities in southern Turkey were arrested Saturday, state-run media reported,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":40693,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[32305,18057,32304,57,32303,362,32306,50,80,2938,402,32307,24922,32308,103,107],"class_list":{"0":"post-40692","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-ankara","9":"tag-bribery","10":"tag-ekrem-imamoglu","11":"tag-general-news","12":"tag-istanbul","13":"tag-legal-proceedings","14":"tag-mansur-yavas","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-politics","17":"tag-prisons","18":"tag-protests-and-demonstrations","19":"tag-recep-tayyip-erdogan","20":"tag-turkey","21":"tag-turkey-government","22":"tag-world","23":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114800521522155566","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40692"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40692\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}