İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, who is currently in police custody, is facing a new investigation over city-run daycare centers, which were allegedly opened without the municipality’s authority to do so, according to the mayor.
The mayor, who has been detained since Wednesday, announced on X on Friday through his lawyers that prosecutors have launched a new investigation into him for establishing daycares. He is already the subject of multiple investigations.
He said he would like to provide a statement to prosecutors as part of the new probe but remains in detention.
“… Otherwise, I would gladly defend the daycare centers we have built for the children of this city. We will continue to commit the crime of opening daycares,” he wrote.
The daycare centers operated by the İstanbul Municipality are among its most popular services, providing relief for low-income families by allowing women to leave their children in safe care while they work.
İmamoğlu, from the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) and 86 others, including two district mayors in İstanbul, city officials, businesspeople and journalists, were detained as part of two investigations led by the İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office. They face accusations of corruption and terrorism, which the opposition says are politically motivated.
The operation against the mayor and other CHP officials came in the wake of an ongoing crackdown on the party over the past several months that led to the arrest and removal from office of three district mayors in İstanbul and the arrest of many other party officials.
The latest investigation into the mayor comes following a directive issued by the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government to municipalities last November, asking them to cease the operation of existing daycare centers and to halt plans for the opening of new ones.
The government’s move was met with sharp criticism from opposition politicians and government opponents for being another attempt to obstruct the services offered by opposition municipalities.
The directive was prompted by a letter from the Ministry of Education, which claimed that inspections had identified daycare centers operated by municipalities that offer activities similar to those in officially registered, private early childhood education institutions.
Citing a ruling from the Constitutional Court in 2007 that invalidated the provision allowing municipalities to establish daycare centers on the grounds that it contravened the constitution, the ministry argued that such facilities violated the law and must be shut down.
In the wake of the harsh criticism from İmamoğlu and others at the time, Turkey’s Presidential Communications Directorate denied that the government planned to close down the daycare centers run by the municipalities, saying the focus was not on shutting down the daycare centers but on ensuring that they operate “in accordance with their intended purpose and regulations.”
“These institutions cannot engage in educational activities included in the preschool education program, meaning they cannot operate as kindergartens or daycare centers,” the statement said last November.
Pre-school education is not mandatory in Turkey, and public kindergartens and daycare centers are still fee-based.
Citing the 2023-2024 Ministry of Education statistics, the Evrensel daily reported last year that only 54.79 percent of children aged 3 to 5 were enrolled in preschool programs — a figure far below the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) average.
The data also reveal a troubling decline in public preschool availability. In 2024, 399 public daycare centers were closed, reducing the number of enrolled children by 4.8 percent — a decrease of over 80,000 students compared to the previous year. Meanwhile, private institutions dominate the sector, accounting for 46.05 percent of all early education facilities, but their high cost makes them inaccessible to most families.