In Turkey, mayors from the Republican People’s Party (CHP), which achieved major success in the 2024 local elections, are being arrested one by one. Just this morning an operation was carried out as part of an investigation targeting Bolu Municipality, leading to the detention of two senior local CHP officials. Gendarmerie forces took Bolu Deputy Mayor Leyla Beykoz and Republican People’s Party municipal council member Aydan Özdemir into custody. Prior to this, the Mayor of Bursa Metropolitan Municipality, Mustafa Bozbey, was also detained.
In an effort to avoid losing power in the general election scheduled for 2028, Erdoğan is trying to portray the opposition as if it were committing crimes and, through a judiciary he controls, is seeking to send the opposition to prison where they cannot challenge the AKP.
Yesterday, the CHP Ankara provincial chair and the Mayor of Bornova were also taken into custody. Regarding the Mayor of Bornova, an allegation was made that there is a worker who appears to be employed by the municipality while receiving a salary without working. However, in recent years it was revealed that Erdoğan and his party, the AKP, had paid salaries to thousands of social media trolls. No one from the AKP was ever detained over this.
Turkey has been experiencing a complete breakdown of the rule of law in recent years. Anyone opposed to Erdoğan can be sent to prison at any moment on spurious and questionable charges. Even the CHP, the main opposition and social democratic party, is under attack from Erdoğan. All of this is aimed at securing Erdoğan’s return to power.
