Analysis
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Recep Tayyip Erdoğan met with Ankara Mayor Mansur Yavaş for the first time since the opposition took control of the capital amid rumors the mayor could be the next target of the judicial assault on opposition municipalities.
Justice Minister Akın Gürlek said a supplementary indictment is being prepared in the Istanbul Municipality corruption case, as the court’s agenda shifted from hearing detained defendants to hearing those on trial who are not in detention.
Thirteen more Istanbul Municipality staff were detained on Sept. 3, as prosecutors widened their operation against the metropolitan authority.
Only two of the 53 formally arrested defendants in the Istanbul Municipality trial were released on the case's 75th hearing day, as relatives of those still held broke down in tears in the courtroom.
Ankara prosecutors have launched legal proceedings against 129 municipal employees in the Keçiören district of the capital following a workplace drug screening initiative.
Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, who has been behind bars since March 2025, and his co-defendants are increasingly pessimistic about the outcome of the hearings in the Istanbul Municipality trial.
The first cooperation between members of the CHP and the People's Alliance took place in Ankara's Etimesgut municipal elections.
The opposition's advantage in Istanbul's Municipal Council is decreasing while the ruling AKP and MHP are increasing their numbers.
The Yeni Party became Turkey's main opposition party soon after its founding, with 91 lawmakers among its founders. Mayors and municipal council members continued to join the party, while the crackdown against its supporters continued at full speed across the country.
Most market participants expect the central bank to keep the policy rate unchanged at 37% when it meets on July 23, but pressure is building for a cut and some experts are calling for a wholesale shift in monetary policy.
The four-month-long first session of the Istanbul Municipality trial ended on July 8 without the testimony of its main defendant: Ekrem İmamoğlu, the jailed Istanbul mayor and ousted CHP administration's presidential candidate, who is accused of being the leader of an alleged criminal organization.
In the latest hearing of the Istanbul Municipality corruption trial on July 7, jailed Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu was not brought to the courtroom, and detentions of dissident journalists continued in Istanbul while the capital Ankara began hosting the NATO Summit.