Turkey: In Ankara, local opposition leader arrested.

Ümit Erkol, president of the provincial branch of the Republican People’s Party (CHP) in Ankara, was arrested as part of a corruption investigation. The Turkish opposition has been under pressure since the detention of Istanbul’s mayor Ekrem Imamoglu in March 2025.

New pressure on the Turkish opposition. The head of the leading Turkish parliamentary opposition party in Ankara was arrested and placed in detention on Sunday after the end of his police custody, in a corruption investigation, local media reported. Ümit Erkol, president of the provincial branch of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), was arrested along with eight others in an investigation conducted by the Izmir public prosecutor’s office into alleged irregularities in a contract between the municipality of that city and a construction cooperative company, Izbeton, as reported by T24 and Birgün news sites. According to the Izmir prosecutor quoted by these publications, the investigation involves “allegations of misappropriation of funds, aggravated fraud, falsification of official documents, and failure to fulfill monitoring obligations”.

Erdogan in power since 2003

Mansur Yavas, the CHP mayor of Ankara, the Turkish capital, denounced this detention, emphasizing in a message on X that Mr. Erkol is “a well-known figure, with a clear address and a precise public role”, adding that there is “no risk of escape, no possibility of evidence tampering”. He insists, “If an arrest warrant is issued in these circumstances, then we cannot speak of justice”.

The Turkish opposition has been under pressure since the arrest and detention of Istanbul’s mayor Ekrem Imamoglu in March 2025, who has been on trial since March 9 for corruption, with 413 co-defendants. Ekrem Imamoglu, designated by the CHP as its candidate for the presidential election scheduled for May 2028, was seen as a favorite and the only one capable of defeating President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in power since 2003 and re-elected in 2023. Four mayors of CHP municipalities, including the mayor of Bursa in the northwest, the fourth largest city in the country which was taken over by the opposition in 2024, have been arrested since the trial began.