Erdoğan’s AKP adds 4 more mayors as defections from opposition continue

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Monday welcomed four opposition mayors into the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), personally pinning their party badges on their lapels ahead of a meeting of the party’s Central Decision and Executive Board (MKYK), in the latest round of defections from the opposition in Turkey.

The mayors who joined the AKP include Mehmet Aydın, mayor of Çumra in the central province of Konya, and Davut Karadavut, mayor of Kadışehri in central Yozgat province, both of whom resigned from the New Welfare Party (YRP), an Islamist opposition party. Two others, Hasan Turgut, mayor of the town of Karalar in southeastern Şırnak province, and Şenol Öncül of Aştağul in Çorum province, switched from the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP).

The defections, marked by a badge-pinning ceremony shortly before the AKP meeting, have drawn criticism from opposition parties and civil society groups, which say post-election transfers undercut voter mandates and weaken accountability.

The move follows a series of switches to the AKP in recent months. Earlier this month, Hasan Ufuk Çakır, a former CHP lawmaker, along with İrfan Karatutlu of the Democracy and Progress Party (DEVA), and İsa Mesih Şahin of the Future Party (GP), all elected on opposition lists in the 2023 general election, joined the ruling party at a parliamentary group meeting in Ankara, where Erdoğan also affixed their badges.

Those lawmakers were elected under the Nation Alliance, a six-party opposition bloc that placed many candidates on CHP lists in 2023 along with its nationalist partner, the İYİ (Good) Party. The alliance secured 39 seats through the CHP lists. Since then, nearly one-third of those lawmakers have left their original parties.

The trend extends further back. In 2024 and 2025, several opposition lawmakers switched to the AKP, including Ahmet Ersagun Yücel, elected from the CHP’s İstanbul list, Ankara lawmaker Mustafa Nedim Yamalı from the GP, legal scholar Serap Yazıcı Özbudun, a founding figure of the GP, and Konya lawmaker Hasan Ekici. Each move fueled debate over political ethics and party discipline.

Defections have also increasingly involved municipalities. In August 2025 nine opposition mayors, including six from the CHP, joined the AKP during a ceremony marking the party’s anniversary. Opposition figures said the moves came as municipalities run by rival parties faced stepped-up inspections, investigations and administrative pressure.