Turkey’s Interior Ministry has authorized 27 administrative investigations into İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu covering the time he served as mayor of İstanbul’s Beylikdüzü district, between 2014 and 2019, according to the Sözcü daily.
Twenty-five of the investigations are related to tenders awarded by the Beylikdüzü Municipality and two involve urban planning.
An inspection of thousands of licenses for shops and construction projects, hundreds of tenders and all city council minutes, was completed at the end of last year, the report said.
It was launched in May 2019, immediately after Turkey’s Supreme Election Board (YSK) ruled for a rerun of the election for mayor of İstanbul.
İmamoğlu had won the race in March 2019 by a tight margin against the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) candidate.
İmamoğlu became İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality mayor in June with a clear win.
Following the announcement of the Interior Ministry decision, the Beylikdüzü Municipality filed an appeal with the Council of State to revoke the authorization.
The report also indicated that Arif Yıldırım, the chief inspector who worked on the case, entered a parliamentary election in June 2015 from the ranks of the ruling AKP.
