, as part of a bid-rigging investigation, the private DHA news agency reported.){kind=link}
Turkish police on Monday detained the mayor of the Beşiktaş district of İstanbul, one of the strongholds of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), as part of a bid-rigging investigation, the private DHA news agency reported.
Rıza Akpolat, 42, was detained following a dawn raid on his summer home in Edremit, a district in western Balıkesir province. He was among 47 people sought on detention warrants as part of an investigation conducted by the İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office.
“A criminal organization … organized tenders by bribing mayors and senior executives of municipalities and ensuring that their own companies were awarded the contracts,” the prosecutor’s office said in a statement on Monday.
Among those facing detention was also Ahmet Özer, the CHP mayor of İstanbul’s Esenyurt district who was arrested on terrorism-related charges in late October and subsequently removed from office.
The detention warrants were issued following a three-month-long investigation, the prosecutors said, adding that the tender-rigging scheme was allegedly led by a man named Aziz İhsan Aktaş.
He and 24 other suspects were detained on charges of establishing and running a criminal organization, membership in a criminal organization, bribery, bid-rigging, violating tax laws and asset laundering.
According to the Sözcü daily, Ahmet Aktaş, the brother of Deputy Interior Minister Mehmet Aktaş, was also among the detainees. Ahmet Aktaş has been working at the İstanbul Municipality for years and is also an executive board member of Beltaş, a subsidiary of the Beşiktaş Municipality, Sözcü reported.
Police set up barriers around the Beşiktaş municipal offices, while Akpolat’s office was searched and staff IDs were checked before they were allowed to enter.
The detention of Akpolat led to widespread condemnation, with the CHP officials calling it a violation of the people’s will and describing the charges against the mayor as politically motivated.
Opposition party mayors have been under immense pressure in Turkey since the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) sustained its worst election defeat in the March 2024 local elections, handing over dozens of municipalities to the opposition candidates.
CHP leader Özgür Özel described Akpolat’s detention as “a new link in the chain of lawlessness in the politicized justice system,” while İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, who is also from the CHP, said the said the dawn raid on Akpolat’s home was part of an attempt to influence public opinion, saying the mayor could have been invited to testify.
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Yurttaşlar "Rıza başkan yalnız değildir" sloganlarıyla bekleyişlerini sürdürüyor
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CHP supporters gathered in front of Beşiktaş city hall to express their support for the mayor and condemn his detention.
Akpolat has been running the Beşiktaş Municipality since 2019. He was re-elected by garnering 64 percent of the vote in the district in March 2024.
The district has been known as a CHP stronghold for many years.
The mayor’s detention came on the same day that two co-mayors from the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) were arrested on terrorism-related charges. The co-mayors of the Akdeniz district in Mersin in southern Turkey were replaced by a government-appointed trustee.
It is not yet known whether the government will also appoint a trustee to the Beşiktaş Municipality.
Meanwhile, the Kronos news website reported, based on anonymous sources in the CHP, that there is also an ongoing investigation into the Şişli Municipality in İstanbul, also run by the CHP.
There are claims that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan wants to eventually sideline İstanbul Mayor İmamoğlu with such operations carried out on CHP municipalities. İmamoğlu, who has been governing İstanbul since 2019, is seen as Erdoğan’s strongest political rival.