İstanbul district mayor dismissed as more operations target CHP municipalities
-
A court arrested the mayor of İstanbul's Silivri district and nine others on corruption charges.
-
Mayor Balcıoğlu called the probe a political operation targeting his party, while the Interior Ministry suspended him from office.
-
Police detained 15 people, including a deputy mayor, over bribery allegations at a district municipality in İzmir, and 10 others in a separate investigation involving an Antalya municipal subsidiary.
-
The operations come amid a broader wave of corruption cases that have targeted over 30 opposition mayors and altered the party leadership since last year.
Ten out of 18 suspects detained in an investigation into alleged irregularities at the İstanbul's Silivri Municipality were formally arrested on Jun 16, including Mayor Bora Balcıoğlu. A penal judgeship of peace released the remaining eight suspects under judicial control.
Following the court's decision, Balcıoğlu, a member of the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), called the investigation a political operation. "We are faced with a new and severe stage of a political operation carried out against my person, my family, my colleagues, my labor, and the will displayed by the people of Silivri at the ballot box," he said in a statement through his lawyers.
Balcıoğlu argued that the allegations raised during the investigation lacked any factual basis, noting that he could not share full details of the case due to a confidentiality order.
He added that the accusations against him relied on rumors and interpretations rather than concrete evidence, echoing claims made by numerous other opposition figures prosecuted on similar corruption charges since last year.
The Interior Ministry announced yesterday that Balcıoğlu has been suspended from office. The district council will elect an acting mayor to replace him.
Bursa mayor arrested, suspended from office in ‘corruption’ probe
Detentions in İzmir
Police launched an operation today over bribery allegations involving the CHP-led Seferihisar Municipality in İzmir.
Authorities detained 15 suspects, including Deputy Mayor Gökhan Pehlivan, in the probe conducted by the İzmir Chief Public Prosecutor's Office.
Indictment seeks up to 2,352 years in prison for İmamoğlu
Antalya municipal subsidiary targeted
Ten additional suspects were detained yesterday in an ongoing investigation into ANSET, a subsidiary of the Antalya Metropolitan Municipality.
The Antalya Chief Public Prosecutor's Office is leading the investigation into allegations of bid-rigging, bribery, laundering proceeds of crime, and fraudulent execution of public contracts.
As part of the probe, police detained 10 individuals, including V. Tuncer and N. Tuncer, the spouse and mother-in-law of former Metropolitan Municipality secretary-general Cansel Çevikol Tuncer, who was previously arrested under the same investigation.
Background
A series of corruption operations targeting the CHP began in March last year, when İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu was detained alongside dozens of municipal workers, officials, and businesspeople. İmamoğlu, whom the CHP has declared its presidential candidate for the elections scheduled for 2028, remains in pretrial detention. He faces over 2,000 years in prison on charges including corruption and espionage.
Since then, more than 30 provincial and district mayors, including those of major cities like Adana, İzmir, Antalya, and Bursa, have been dismissed and jailed on similar corruption allegations.
In most of these cases, the CHP managed to retain control of the municipalities. Although the government has the legal authority to appoint trustees to replace dismissed officials, political convention dictates that municipal councils elect an acting mayor when a mayor is removed over non-terror charges. Because the CHP holds majorities in these councils, it has maintained its administrative control.
Thirty-one opposition mayors removed from office since 2024 elections
In a separate development last month, an Ankara court ruled that the 2023 CHP leadership election was irregular, finding that delegates had been compromised through various bribes. The court removed Özgür Özel from leadership and reinstated former leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu.
Özel retains his party membership and parliamentary group chairpersonship, effectively splitting the CHP into two rival factions.
Court removes leadership of Turkey's main opposition party
The Özel-İmamoğlu faction views the corruption probes and the reinstatement of Kılıçdaroğlu as a direct intervention by the ruling bloc against its main opponent.
In 2024, the CHP won the largest number of municipalities nationwide, including the country's biggest cities, dealing President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan the biggest electoral defeat of his more than 20 years in power.
The ruling bloc denies any political interference, emphasizing that the corruption investigations and the allegations of irregularities in the CHP congress were originally brought forward by CHP members and witnesses themselves.
(VK)
