ISTANBUL (Medyascope) – An ongoing crackdown on Turkey’s opposition-controlled municipalities continues with new arrests in Mersin as well as in the Istanbul districts of Eyüpsultan and Ataşehir.
By Leo Kendrick • Medyascope
All three investigations allege corruption in the opposition-controlled districts.
Mersin Mayor Vahap Seçer was arrested early Tuesday (October 6) after his initial detention on October 1st along with 58 other officials from Mersin’s city government.
The investigation targeting Seçer and his administration allege 331 million Turkish Liras in losses resulting from 13 public tenders and 63 smaller municipality-issued contracts.
Since October 2024, Turkish authorities have detained or arrested hundreds of CHP members and municipal officials, including dozens of elected mayors. The crackdown intensified with Ekrem İmamoğlu’s arrest in March 2025 and continued through 2026, with authorities citing corruption and other allegations. CHP and rights groups say the prosecutions are politically motivated.
Two Istanbul district mayors also arrested
Opposition district mayors in Istanbul’s Eyüpsultan and Ataşehir districts were also arrested.
Murat Güneş had served as the acting mayor of the Ataşehir district since the April 2026 arrest of Onursal Adıgüzel.
Eyüpsultan district mayor Mithat Bülent Özmen had served in the overwhelmingly conservative district on Istanbul’s European side since Turkey’s local elections in 2024, in which Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) made historic gains.
In the year-and-a-half since these polls, many of these opposition gains have been reversed by arrests and defections, particularly in Istanbul.
This week, Izmir Mayor Cemil Tugay is rumored to be considering a transfer to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP), in what would be a historic development for the famously secular western coastal city.
Critics have noted the ongoing jailing of opposition officials amidst a financial scandal which led to the resignation of the AKP’s deputy chair but has produced no arrests.
Arrests of Turkish opposition officials continue in Mersin, Istanbul | Written/translated by Leo Kendrick | Edited by Medyascope English Newsroom
