Analysis
Smart, independent reporting on Turkey's politics, economy and foreign affairs.
Cemil Tugay has been mayor of the Izmir Metropolitan Municipality since 2024. When he resigned from the CHP, he said he would join the new party Özgür Özel was forming. Özel said similar things. But around the same time, reports surfaced that Tugay’s communications with Özel were breaking down.
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.
Ahmet and Hülya Gökçek, the son and daughter-in-law of former Ankara Mayor Melih Gökçek, were questioned as suspects on Sept. 7 and released under judicial control with a ban on leaving Turkey.
In a surprising move, former Ankara Mayor Melih Gökçek — long accused of corruption but never prosecuted — has been summoned to testify before the Organized Crime Investigation Bureau of the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor's Office on Sept. 4.
Jailed Antalya Mayor Muhittin Böcek faces new criminal allegations involving prostitution and abuse of office, following his earlier arrest in a corruption probe, according to media reports.
Barred from social media and unable to deliver his defense at the first hearing of the Istanbul corruption trial, Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu is now challenging a court order banning the book in which he set out that defense.
When the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor's Office summoned the city’s former mayor, Melih Gökçek, to testify over his family members' assets and accounts in Germany, the first reaction was silence.
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.
Ekrem İmamoğlu, Istanbul’s jailed mayor, announced his resignation from the CHP and his decision to support the Yeni Party three weeks after its founding.
Erdal Beşikçioğlu, mayor of Etimesgut, a satellite town of the capital, has been arrested. The charge against him is much the same as those leveled at other CHP mayors: 'Forming a criminal organization for the purpose of corruption.'
After the detention of Cem Küçük, a prominent commentator on TV screens known for leaking information from judicial files, Tahir Sarıkaya, an anchor from the Beyaz TV channel owned by former Ankara Mayor Melih Gökçek and his son Osman Gökçek, was arrested for blackmailing and spreading false information.
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.