In Turkey are again three mayors arrested, All belonging to the most important opposition party CHP. It concerns the mayors of the great southern cities of Adana, Antalya and Adiyaman last year.
In March of this year, the arrest of the popular mayor of Istanbul, Ekrem Imamoglu, also a CHP member, led to the largest protest demonstrations in Turkey in more than ten years. Imamoglu was generally seen as President Erdogan’s greatest rival. Since March he has been trapped in anticipation of his trial.
The Turkish Justice accuses all arrested mayors of involvement in corruption, but convincing evidence is missing so far. In the case of Imamoglu, only an anonymous witness was performed. According to the CHP but also according to Many observers abroad the arrests are politically motivated.
Although President Erdogan maintains that Turkish justice is independent, it is a public secret that judges in his country can only remain in function if they do exactly what the government wants. If not, dismissal or transfer will wait to an unattractive outpost.
The mayors of Adana and Adiyana would have tried to squeeze local businessmen and the mayor of Antalya would have been involved in corrupt practices. Earlier this week, in Izmir, the third city of Turkey, also 137 people were arrested, again predominantly CHPs. One of them was a former mayor of Izmir.
Dynamic leader
The fact that the authorities have specially felt it on the CHP, originally founded by father of the Father’s Atatürk, is also apparent from another lawsuit, which the prosecutor started. In 2023, the election of the new CHP chairman Özgür Özel would not have been in a regulatory basis. He may still be put out of his position on the authority of a Turkish judge. A session on this has been postponed this week until September.
Since the arrest of Imamoglu, Özel has emerged as a dynamic leader. Much more dynamic than his 76-year-old predecessor Kemal Kilicdaroglu, who was defeated by Erdogan in the presidential elections of 2023. With a forced departure from Özel, the little charismatic Kilicdarogu might return as a party chairman, which Erdogan would not be bad.
One of the few prominent CHP mayors who have not yet been arrested, Mansur Yavas in Ankara, Hitched X The fact that only figures from his party are arrested and nobody from the AK party of Erdogan. Yavas: “In a system where the law is bent and twisted in accordance with political needs, where the right to one group is applied and is looked at at another, no one needs to expect that we still have faith in the rule of law and justice.”
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