A photo from September 2019 shows Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan greeting Adana Mayor Zeydan Karalar, one of three mayors arrested on July 5, 2025. (Credit: Turkish presidential press service handout via AFP)
ISTANBUL — Turkey arrested three more opposition mayors early on Saturday as part of an investigation into alleged graft, officials from the main opposition CHP said, denouncing it as a "political operation."
The early morning arrests were the latest move targeting elected officials of the Republican People's Party (CHP) as the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan puts increasing pressure on the party, which won a huge victory against his AKP in the 2024 local elections and is rising in the polls.
They were linked to an investigation into alleged graft, which resulted in the removal in March of Istanbul's powerful opposition mayor, Ekrem Imamoglu, whose jailing sparked mass protests in Turkey's worst street unrest since 2013.
Imamoglu is Erdogan's biggest political rival and the CHP's candidate for the 2028 presidential race.
Earlier this week, police arrested 137 people as part of a probe into alleged graft in the opposition stronghold of Izmir, Turkey's third city. They were still seeking others under a prosecutors' arrest warrant that named 157 people.
The latest detainees were based in southern Turkey: mayor of the southern city of Adana, Zeydan Karalar, mayor of the resort town of Antalya, Muhittin Bocek, and the mayor of Adiyaman in the southeast, Abdurrahman Tutdere.
As he was being led away to a police car, a journalist asked Karalar why he was being arrested. "Where there is an influential journalist or politician, they silence them," he replied.
"In a system where the law bends and sways according to politics, where justice is applied for one group and ignored for another, no one should expect us to trust in the rule of law or believe in justice," wrote Mansur Yavas on X, opposition mayor of Ankara, Turkey's capital.
"We will not bow to injustice, lawlessness, or political operations," he added.
The pro-Kurdish DEM party, the third largest in Turkey's parliament, also denounced the arrests in a strongly-worded statement.
'Stop persecuting elected officials'
"This persecution of elected officials must stop," wrote DEM co-president Tulay Hatimogullari on X.
"Not respecting the decisions of the people at the ballot box and not recognizing the will of the people is causing deep rifts," she wrote.
"These operations are not a solution, but block the road to a democratic Turkey."
On Tuesday, more than 10,000 people joined a protest rally organized by the main opposition CHP outside Istanbul City Hall, marking 100 days since Imamoglu's jailing.
Speaking on Saturday, CHP leader Ozgur Ozel said the latest arrests were "a dirty operation carried out by a politician", referring to Istanbul's chief public prosecutor, Akin Gurlek.
Gurlek, a judge who became deputy justice minister in 2022 before being named to his current position in October 2024, has ordered most of the CHP probes.
Erdogan has accused the CHP of using the protests as a distraction from the graft probes. They (the CHP) "are trying to cover up their crimes and whitewash their criminals with street protests in an effort to wear down our judicial institutions," he said in remarks relayed by state news agency Anadolu on Saturday.
On Monday, an Ankara court began hearing a case against the party over allegations of vote-buying during its 2023 leadership primary — allegations that could ultimately overturn the election of Ozel, whose prominence shot up after the March protests.
Police also arrested the deputy mayor of Istanbul's Buyukcekmece district, Ahmet Sahin, as part of the same probe, online news site BirGun reported.
ISTANBUL — Turkey arrested three more opposition mayors early on Saturday as part of an investigation into alleged graft, officials from the main opposition CHP said, denouncing it as a "political operation."
The early morning arrests were the latest move targeting elected officials of the Republican People's Party (CHP) as the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan puts increasing pressure on the party, which won a huge victory against his AKP in the 2024 local elections and is rising in the polls.
They were linked to an investigation into alleged graft, which resulted in the removal in March of Istanbul's powerful opposition mayor, Ekrem Imamoglu, whose jailing sparked mass protests in Turkey's worst street unrest since 2013.
Imamoglu is Erdogan's biggest political rival...
