Authorities in Turkey detained three mayoral leaders from the opposition party.
In a series of recent detentions, several mayors from the Republican People's Party (CHP), Turkey's main opposition party, have found themselves embroiled in corruption investigations, sparking concerns of a targeted campaign against the CHP.
The latest round of detentions took place on July 5, 2025, with Zeydan Karalar, the mayor of Adana, Muhittin Böcek, the mayor of Antalya, and Abdurrahman Tutdere, the mayor of Adıyaman, being arrested in separate investigations. These cases, led by the Istanbul and Antalya Chief Public Prosecutors' Offices, involve allegations of bribery and organized crime.
These arrests follow the earlier detention of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, a prominent opposition figure and a significant challenger to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Imamoglu's detention in March sparked the largest street protests in Turkey in over a decade.
Critics see these arrests as a pattern of politically driven actions intended to weaken the CHP's influence in key municipalities. The government, however, maintains that prosecutors and the judiciary are acting independently.
Past months have seen a wave of similar investigations and arrests involving CHP officials, suggesting a broader systematic effort to target political opponents under the guise of anti-corruption probes. The mayors of the Istanbul districts of Besiktas and Esenyurt have also been detained as part of these investigations.
The detained mayors have been removed from their offices, and Imamoglu is seen as a potential challenger to President Erdogan. The Turkish judiciary has been criticized for years for acting partisan and politically instrumentalizing investigations against opposition politicians.
Many observers view these detentions as a targeted campaign by the government against the CHP. The CHP emerged as the strongest force in the recent nationwide local elections, posing a serious political challenge to the ruling AKP, particularly at the local level. Erdogan has threatened further action against the CHP, labeling the party as a "tool of municipal thieves."
This campaign against CHP leadership at the municipal level appears aimed at neutralizing the opposition’s political power ahead of forthcoming elections or political challenges to the ruling party. The question remains whether these actions will succeed in silencing the opposition or galvanize it further.
The war-and-conflicts section of general news may cover the ongoing detentions of CHP mayors, which some perceive as a politically driven campaign. The crime-and-justice sector could report on the corruption investigations that led to the arrests of Zeydan Karalar, Muhittin Böcek, Abdurrahman Tutdere, Ekrem İmamoğlu, and other CHP officials, allegedly involving organized crime and bribery.
