A new wave of arrests related to suspicions of fraud and corruption practices in municipalities run by the Turkish opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) has swept Turkey in recent days, Turkish media reported. Employees of the Ankara Etimesgut Municipality and the Greater Antalya Municipality have been detained, BTA reported.
According to information from the West Ankara Chief Prosecutor's Office, quoted by the “Birgun“ newspaper, the director and accountant of the “Social Assistance“ Directorate of the Ankara Etimesgut Municipality, as well as the general director and treasurer of the municipal company “Etimkent“ were detained this morning. Today, searches were carried out in the homes of the four detainees, and according to the Prosecutor's Office, the operation was carried out after an audit found serious irregularities in the accounting information and financial transactions of the municipality.
In a separate operation this morning, the chief advisor of the Greater Municipality of Antalya (Southern Turkey), Cem Oguz, and one of the municipal employees were also detained, TRT Haber reports. The arrests are part of a wider investigation into municipal corruption led by the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office.
Another municipal employee from the Antalya Greater Municipality was arrested yesterday in the same investigation, and the two drivers of the ousted Antalya mayor, Muhitin Böcek, who is currently in custody, were kept in custody indefinitely after their arrest last Thursday, TRT Haber noted.
The mayor of the western Turkish city of Uşak, Özkan Yalam, also from the HDP, was also arrested last Friday on charges of corruption and bid rigging.
The latest wave of arrests is part of a large-scale campaign by Turkish authorities to investigate municipalities run by the HDP, which has so far detained a number of municipal employees and mayors from the opposition party, including the ousted Istanbul mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, who was detained on 19 March 2025
The news comes amid the ongoing trial of İmamoğlu and 407 other defendants, including several other mayors from the HDP, which began on March 9. According to the indictment by the Turkish prosecutor's office, an organized group led by İmamoğlu began operating during his term as mayor of the Istanbul municipality of Beylikdüzü and expanded during his term as mayor of the Greater Istanbul Municipality. İmamoğlu is accused of 142 different acts, including “forming an organization with the intent to commit crimes“, “concealing evidence of a crime“ and others, with prosecutors seeking a sentence of up to 2,352 years in prison.